NASHVILLE — Despite expressing reservations, Gov. Phil Bredesen today said he signed a bill allowing handguns in state and local parks.
But in his notification letter to House Speaker Kent Williams, he said “I do want to urge local governments to use the opt-out provisions of this bill to remove parks from its effect when they are located close to schools and other places where large numbers of children congregate.”
The governor said he was allowing another measure, House Bill 1796, to become law without his signature, saying the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act “represents a fringe constitutional theory that I believe will be quickly dispensed with by the federal courts.”
The bill, modeled after a Montana law, seeks to exempt guns made in Tennessee from federal firearms regulations.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
Yeah, we cain't have all them thar permit-holders doin' thar thang lie-uk in uh shootin' gullery. Hyuk, hyuk.
That's the first I heard of Tennessee's camel's nose state's rights bill.
Thing is, Montana's law calls for the arrest of any federal officer entering the state to seize someone's 100% Tennessee-made gun, whether or not said gun meets federal regulations and restrictionss. No jurisdiction, IMO. Quite the opposite. The feds use the Constitution's interstate commerce clause in essentially all such cases. But things 100% made here, sold here, and kept here do not enter interstate commerce... Further, to my knowledge there is no provision in the Constitution allowing a federal police force [FBI, DEA, et al].
But I am sure the SCOTUS will find some way around the issue, as usual. Look what it did to the Chrysler bondholders...
Is that the snapping of flags and the sound of bugles I hear in the distance? Or is it the Tea Party party-ers...?
That should read "...100% Montana-made gun..."
With all of the gun legislation being passed to allow HCP holders to broaden legal carry areas, why is it that our civic leaders insist on keeping the "Gun Free Zones"? This is an invitation to the criminal element saying that "there is more than likely no resistance here". And, it is puzzling why the anti-gun population can't see this or just refuse to understand it.
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