Griscom: Getting down to business

For 65 days the Tennessee General Assembly has been in session.

During that period, according to information provided to the Times Free Press, 41,700 workers in the state filed for unemployment benefits. Foreclosures on homeowners totaled 13,832. The jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent, the highest level in 25 years.

With those numbers illustrating the continued impact of the economic malaise, legislative attention might have been focused on issues that address the financial straits in higher education and mental health and anticipated furloughs or layoffs of state employees. That has not been the case.

To be fair, lawmakers get a break on the state budget. Gov. Phil Bredesen requested a delay in presenting his spending plan, awaiting the cash flow that was coming from Washington in the form of a stimulus plan.

Factoring in the new funds, the governor was able to avoid, for example, deeper cuts in the budgets of colleges and universities while lowering tuition increases. But even with the Washington windfall, state tax revenues continued to plummet, forcing a new round of budget reductions.

So with time on their hands, lawmakers did a little house cleaning on bills that had been sitting around for several years; ones on which former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, blocked action — such as firearms in bars and restaurants.

More than 140 bills relating to firearms have been introduced in the General Assembly, and a number are on their way to becoming law.

At the end of the legislative session, there will be few places where a person with a gun-carrying permit cannot take a firearm. Parks (state, city and county), restaurants and bars will be approved locations. O’Charley’s, the Nashville-based restaurant chain, has gained notoriety during the legislative debate on guns in bars and restaurants.

Supporters of the legislation referenced the restaurant chain as the place of choice for taking their families and needing to carry a firearm. O’Charley’s can determine whether this is good or bad publicity, but it probably does not hold with the political belief that a mention is fine as long as its name is spelled correctly. It seems odd that a family restaurant is the place where a licensed gun carrier would be concerned for the safety of his or her family.

At least one group is pleased it has been exempted from the approved gun-carrying sites in 2009: college professors. That liberal group (they all are), which certainly is opposed to the Second Amendment, acknowledged with relief that students were not authorized to tote guns on campus.

For all of the venues that now permit firearms to be present — parks, restaurants and bars — there is one place that surprisingly remains off limits. Citizens should write their legislators and ask why.

An act of the legislature is not required. Overriding a governor’s veto is not necessary. With merely a nod from two people, the legislative plaza also can become a gun-carrying zone.

Why not? As they say, if you can do it to your constituents, why not do it to yourself?

To make it clear, if you believe in the ability to carry a gun anyplace, anytime, then Mr. Speaker, take down those annoying signs. Take down that wall. (Your author has license to use the line.)

Do the same to yourself that you have done to every city, county, restaurant and bar. Firearms are allowed unless there is a note to the contrary.

That will be the law for all of Tennessee.

To reach Tom Griscom, call 423 757-6472 or e-mail tgriscom@timesfreepress.com.