U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) were both honored as Legislator of the Year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry trade organization, for their efforts opposing the Biden administration’s attempt to impose new rules on gun manufacturers.
In a post to the social media platform X on Wednesday, Green said the two Tennesseans receiving the honor proves, “Tennessee continues to lead the way in protecting our Second Amendment rights.”
The organization said Green and Hagerty were specifically selected for the award because of their “determination over the past year to protect the firearm industry against the weaponization of the Biden Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) onerous and politically-motivated attacks,” crediting the Tennesseans for leading “the charge to fight back against the punishing Interim Final Rule designed to hobble U.S. firearm manufacturers by throttling exports of our industry’s products.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced the proposed rule in April 2024, claiming that restricting firearm sales to companies with a federal license would “better protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests,” especially “countering the diversion and misuse of firearms and related items and advancing human rights.”
Green argued last year that the Interim Final Rule would result in a loss of American small businesses and manufacturing jobs unless BIS changed course after he introduced legislation that would have blocked it.
“From the small businesses that sell firearms, ammunition, and components, to the manufacturers and shippers that make and deliver them, the rule will only further devastate businesses harmed by the pause. Making these changes permanent only weakens the rights of law-abiding citizens while giving criminal actors a monopoly of force,” said Green at the time.
Hagerty, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, argued the rule was part of a greater effort by the Biden administration to curtail the rights afforded to American citizens under the Second Amendment.
“The Biden Administration has made clear that its goal is to damage the firearm industry that supplies the products that allow Americans to exercise their constitutional freedom,” said Hagerty. “Crushing American exports is just a means to skirt the legislative process and do damage to yet another Biden-disfavored industry.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
