The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition released a lengthy statement to The Tennessee Star Tuesday afternoon after a far-left gun control group directed its supporters to protest an event where the nonprofit’s Williamson County chapter will focus on eradicating human trafficking in the Volunteer State.
Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) and State Senator Jack Johnson (pictured above, left) (R-District 27) will attend.
A group called Common-Sense Tennessee, run by a man named Jared Sullivan, who describes himself as “just a boring dad,” sent an email rallying its supporters to protest at the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, which will be held at the Williamson County Public Library on August 15.
“Ahead of the August 21st special session on public safety, Congressman Andy Ogles—aka the AR-15 Christmas-card guy—and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson—who represents Williamson County and has led the charge to loosen Tennessee’s gun laws—have announced that they’ll make rare public appearances at the library for a meeting of a political-advocacy group. So we’re going to be there, too,” Sullivan said in an email to supporters.
“Poll after poll has shown that Williamson County voters overwhelmingly support gun-reform legislation,” he said. “Yet Johnson and Ogles have refused to support any such measure. We plan to gather outside the library to take a public stand for peace, unity, and civic-mindedness—and to urge Johnson and Ogles to act in their constituents’ interest by supporting sensible gun reform.”
The email urges supporters to push for red flag laws, recently peddled by Gov. Bill Lee (R), which will be a subject of debate during the upcoming special session of the General Assembly.
The following is the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition’s statement in full:
While we are leaders on a variety of issues near and dear to the hearts of people of faith, conservatives, and people who value the U.S. Constitution, the central mission of the Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition is the eradication of the modern-day slavery that is child and human trafficking in the state of Tennessee.
The central theme of all of the meetings of our Williamson County Faith and Freedom Coalition chapter has been, and will continue to be, raising public awareness and advancing the cause of the elimination of the scourge that is trafficking in our state.
On August 15th, we are hosting Congressman Andy Ogles and State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson as our featured speakers at our Williamson County monthly meeting.
We emphasize that this upcoming meeting will be no different than our previous ones in that the issue of ending modern-day slavery will be the main theme.
It has come to our attention that some Marxist outlets have encouraged agitators to come to our event and disrupt it. It has also come to our attention that an anti-Second Amendment group based in Williamson County is staging a protest against our event.
We find it utterly disgusting that these groups would encourage agitators and protestors against an event where the main theme is saving children and women from the very real evil that is child and human trafficking.
Sadly, this is no surprise. The Left would rather take Constitutional rights away and score bogus political points than save lives – even and especially when it comes to the Second Amendment.
One can simply point to New York, Chicago, California, and a whole host of blue cities and states to know that the kinds of restrictions they advocate exacerbate existing issues in those communities and create new ones.
At best, the Marxists ignore the issue of child and human trafficking. At worst, they enable it.
It has been said that one can best be judged by the enemies one has made. During the course of our work (and the work of our partner organization the Mission America Foundation) on fighting modern-day slavery and guarding our state against Marxism, we have taken on the Biden Administration, Marxist politicians, cartels, gangs, bad District Attorneys General, Chinese mafia, MS-13, grifters, and Marxist agitators.
It is our prayer that those misguided souls that intend to disrupt or protest our event, learn something about the evils of child and human trafficking and decide to join the cause of fighting against it.
Subsequent to the publication of this story on August 9, Jared Sullivan contacted The Star and disputed elements of the story. Here, in part, is what he wrote in an emailed statement:
—We don’t plan to “disrupt” anything. .. My group will be outside the public library while Johnson and Ogles will be inside in a conference room. I’ve already discussed with the library where we’ll be positioned to ensure that we don’t block anyone from entering the building. Moreover, the letter I wrote to my followers, which your [article] partially quoted, makes no mention of “disrupting.” What my letter does say is that we’ll be promoting peace, unity, and civic-mindedness — which I guess are things your [article] takes great offense with.—The headline and the entire story are framed as if we’re protesting The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition (TFFC)’s efforts to end human trafficking, which is not true and it’s deceptive and inflammatory for the [article] to suggest that we are or to quote TFFC saying as much. The letter that I wrote to my followers about the rally doesn’t even mention TFFC, much less child trafficking. We’re gathering at the library because Johnson and Ogles seldom meet with their constituents and this is a rare chance to be seen by them. That’s abundantly clear in the letter I wrote to my supporters, and our rally flier clearly states that our event is in support of common-sense gun reform; it also makes no mention of TFFC. . .—We’re not “far-left,” as the first paragraph states. Polling by Republican Glen Casada shows that most GOP voters in deep-red Williamson County support the sort of modest gun reforms we’re calling for, so our views are very much aligned with our community’s. . . Moreover, the email that I sent to my supporters clearly states that our rally is a nonpartisan event. Calling us a “far-left group” is factually wrong.—We are not “anti-Second Amendment,” as your [article] quotes TFFC saying. Nowhere does our website or literature make any such claim. I was previously an editor for Field & Stream magazine, and I still love to hunt and fish and shoot. I’ve interviewed Donald Trump Jr for The New Yorker about hunting, for Christ’s sake. Calling for reform is not the same as opposing the Second Amendment.
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[Editor’s Note: This article was updated on August 10, 2023 to include comments provided to The Tennessee Star by Jared Sullivan.]
Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Background Photo “Williamson County Public Library System” by Williamson County Public Library System.
As they want gun control, they also want information control as the Nashville Covenant School killer’s info is being kept secret. They want to use it as a pretext to attack and violate the rights of Tennesseans, but want to eliminate the pertinent information of the killer’s methods and motives. And incredibly, they do not want schools protected like politicians, media, sports events and others of the wealthy and ruling class elites. Now why is that??
The ultra left lies. It’s not about gun control. It’s about people control.
of course they would the left is in favor of human trafficking.
if they werent their policies would try to stop the things that contribute.