by Jon Styf
As Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee prepares to call a special session of the Legislature on public safety, the specifics of that special session call have yet to be announced.
One bill that Democratic leadership is intending to propose is a red flag law bill sponsors refer to as the Families Know First Act, an “extreme risk protection order” bill proposed late in the legislative session by Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, and Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville.
House Bill 1574 was one of five proposed gun bills that reached the House Delayed Bills Committee, which consists of House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, and House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland.
A bill needs a unanimous vote of the three leaders to be introduced. No action was taken on four of the bills but HB 1574 received approval from Camper and Sexton while Lamberth did not approve its introduction following the shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School that left six staff and students dead along with the shooter.
“The Delayed Bills Committee is not a vote of whether or not Speaker Sexton or anyone else supports the language or concept of a bill,” Sexton spokesperson Doug Kufner told The Center Square on Friday. “The vote is simply about allowing it into the committee process because it was filed after the Jan. bill filing deadline.
“The Covenant School shooting took place after the bill filing deadline, and Rep. Freeman stated his constituents asked him to file legislation. Rep. Freeman was under the 15-bill limit, so the speaker simply let the process of allowing his bill to get into the committee system to happen.”
That same proposal is being worked on right now but the exact wording will depend on the wording of Lee’s call for a special session.
Campbell has said she is also planning to propose bills to expand background checks, limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds or less, ban assault weapons and bump stocks, enforce guns-in-trunks law and also , repeal permitless carry, add a 72-hour firearm purchase waiting period and create a wreckless endangerment felony for failing to secure firearms if a child younger than 13 gains possession, among other proposals.
Lee has proposed a bill for a temporary mental health order of protection but that bill has not received the support of House Republicans, who have also called for the release of the writings of the Covenant School shooter before the special session.
Sexton has reiterated that he is opposed to red flag laws.
“The speaker has and will always strongly support the House committee system,” Kufner said about Freeman’s HB 1574. “He believes strongly in allowing members to represent their district and their constituents. While Speaker Sexton supported the bill being heard, the speaker has continued to express his opposition to red flag laws in Tennessee.”
The Firearms Policy Coalition, which reached a settlement with Tennessee earlier this year blocking the states restriction on open carry and permits for those ages 18-20, has spoken out against all red flag laws.
FPC said it will stand against any push for gun control in Tennessee.
“Regardless of the form any potential legislation takes, political expediency or anti-rights policy preferences are not substitutes for the solemn duty to protect and uphold the Constitution, the principles of individual liberty and respect for the law,” the group said in a statement. “Firearms Policy Coalition will continue its fight to restore the Second Amendment rights of the People and oppose any efforts to abrogate those same fundamental liberties.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Bill Lee” by Gov. Bill Lee. Background Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Lee’s just joking around. He wants to TRICK leftists and progressives that he is finally on their side about firearms control. If he really meant what he said, he would not have pushed through a law to give immunity to weapon manufactures when one of their customers misuses these weapons to kill innocent people. Secondly, he would not have waited until this August to push his supposedly anti-gun program while schools are out. Rather, he would have pushed this agenda before the Legislature adjourned a month or two ago. Lee’s a pathological liar! He’s still one of you Republicans through and through!
Will transgenderism automatically trigger a red flag? To ask the question is to answer it. A legislator should amend all bills to create a rebuttable presumption that transgenderism is mental illness. And let’s face the real issue here: it was a transgender likely hopped up on hormones. Where’s that toxicology report? Any legislator who supports gun control and votes against a bill that flags transgenders is a liar, a hypocrite, and either a leftist or a Lee Republican (a/k/a “cuck,” “RINO”).
Bill Lee continues the last three GOP governors liberal intentions in their 2nd term! Don Sundquist proposed a state income tax, Rino Bill Haslam proposed to bring back TENCARE and now Bill Lee wanting to put limits on our gun rights, Lee should resign and run for re election as a RED Flag candidate and see if he gets re elected to push his anti gun agenda!
Well said, Randy.
These shootings are always “don’t let a crisis go to waste” reactionary authoritarian reason for citizen disarmament. For anyone educated in an historical perspective:
ONLY YOUR ENEMY WANTS YOU DISARMED
“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.” —Aristotle (384 BC—322 BC)
And just what part of “shall not be infringed” is so difficult for these people to understand? This amendment is not about documenting a natural right that we citizens have as much as documenting what the government CANNOT do!
A bill to limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds. So does that criminalize all current gun owners with standard capacity magazines? And does it EXEMPT certain persons? If so, that’s a violation of the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection of the laws”, one of two which overturned the 1857 SCOTUS Dred Scott decision to end slavery. These proposals are gross injustice of a collectivist religion which punishes and attacks the rights for what a few murderous criminals do, especially to intentionally UNDEFENDED places like schools while politicians have armed security.
“Tyranny may be defined by what is legal for the government is illegal for the citizenry.” —Thomas Jefferson
Non of these proposals would do anything to curtail the violence. Criminals and the mentally ill don’t follow laws. Heck, the clowns in Washington don’t either. The only these proposed laws would do is empower those willing to abuse those laws.
Allowing the most evil and sick among us to dictate the terms of liberty and freedom leaves us all vulnerable to the loss of all liberty and freedom. In order for society to function properly there must be first a willingness to preserve that liberty and freedom in the face of that evil and crazy. Red Flag Laws make us all less safe. Just say no to ignorance.