NASHVILLE — House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh on Wednesday used his post to kill gun legislation in the General Assembly.
Naifeh, with the help of a brand new member of the Legislature, on Wednesday helped override an earlier subcommittee vote in favor of a bill that would close handgun permit records from public inspection.
As speaker, the Covington Democrat is entitled to vote on any House panel.
“I’d really prefer to not go the committees and vote. But when it’s a matter of importance, I do,” Naifeh said.
The House Criminal Practice Subcommittee had voted earlier Wednesday to pass the legislation sponsored by Rep. Eddie Bass, D-Prospect, while two major opponents of the bill were out of the room.
But later in the day Rep. Karen Camper, a Memphis Democrat, was sworn in to replace the late Rep. Gary Rowe, and Naifeh quickly assigned her to the Judiciary Committee.
“So I took her and presented her to the chairman and the committee, and we went from there,” Naifeh said.
Naifeh last year used a similar tactic to advance a cigarette tax hike out of the tobacco-friendly House Agriculture Committee. The day of a key vote, he installed another newly sworn-in Memphis Democrat to that panel to ensure its passage.
Naifeh said he’s not concerned that his opponents will paint him as stacking the deck or being devious.
“If that’s all I get accused of, I can live with that,” he laughed.
House Judiciary Chairman Kent Coleman, D-Murfreesboro, said he voted for the measure the first time on Wednesday with the knowledge that House rules limit motions for reconsideration to members who voted on the winning side.
Coleman, Naifeh and Camper were joined by the Reps. Rob Briley and Janis Sontany — the two Nashville Democrats who had been absent earlier — to kill the bill on a 5-4 vote.
Naifeh last month joined the same panel to vote against several other gun bills, including proposals to allow people to carry their weapons into restaurants and state parks, authorizing faculty and staff at public schools and universities to carry handguns on campus and to give people voluntarily hospitalized in mental institutions the right to obtain handgun permits after seven years.
Naifeh said he’s not worried about alienating fellow Democrats who support various gun-related proposals.
“We both realize and understand that we’ve got different views on gun bills, and we’ve had discussions on them,” he said. “And it doesn’t cause any friction whatsoever.”
Rep. Henry Fincher, D-Cookeville, supported the measure to close the gun permit records and was presiding over the panel when it first advanced.
Fincher said he didn’t see Naifeh’s actions as a public reprimand.
“I didn’t take it that way,” he said. “They had strong feelings on the bill, as did I.”
“They had the votes,” he said.
The companion measure is scheduled for a Senate floor vote Thursday.
