The Associated Press / Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, answers questions at the Tennessee Press Association convention, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn.NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam and the House and Senate speakers are sticking to their guns over whether to let handgun-carry permit holders bring firearms into areas of Tennessee's Capitol complex.
Haslam isn't thrilled about the prospect, and thinks he's got the say-so. Top administration officials cite three statutes putting General Services, an executive-branch department, in charge of the Capitol and nearby annex buildings.
A fourth statute specifically says the Department of Safety and Homeland Security is in charge of security in Legislative Plaza, the War Memorial Building and the Capitol.
Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey's spokesman, though, points Article II, Section 12 of the Tennessee Constitution, which says the House and Senate are in charge of their "own rules" and that each "shall have all other powers necessary for a branch of the Legislature of a free State."
And that's where the duel stood Friday when reporters spotted the man in charge of security, Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons, walking through Legislative Plaza.
They asked Gibbons about the impact of the plan by Ramsey, R-Blountville, and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, to allow permit holders to go armed in Legislative Plaza and the War Memorial Building, which house legislative offices and committee rooms.
"We would have to set up obviously an entirely new screening process," Gibbons said. "But we're not at that point now," he added, pointing to General Services control of the buildings.
Asked if that meant lawmakers would have to pass legislation changing those statutes, Gibbons replied, "I believe that's the governor's position, yeah."
The issue has simmered behind the scenes for months. It came into the open last week when Ramsey said he and Harwell wanted to welcome permit holders - Tennessee has 535,000 of them - into Legislative Plaza and War Memorial with their firearms.
The proposal does not include the actual Capitol, which houses offices for the governor and three constitutional officers on the first floor and the House and Senate chambers just upstairs, plus top administration offices in the basement. An underground tunnel connects the Capitol and Legislative Plaza.
Ramsey said the speakers wanted the new policy to take effect in January but said there had been a delay as the Tennessee Highway Patrol worked through some "logistical concerns."
Still, Ramsey anticipated the change coming within two weeks.
"I'm ready to take the [ban] signs down anytime," Ramsey told reporters. "It's a proven statistic - indisputable - that if gun carry permit holders are allowed into a facility, it is safer, not less safe."
Not everyone feels that way, though.
"Oooh, I'm going to see if they'll provide me with some armor," said Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga. "Some of the people who come in, we won't know whether or not they're having an emotional meltdown or something. And that's going to be troubling to me. Many times, we get emotional about what is happening and somebody can pull out a gun."
Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, noted thousands of children visit the Capitol complex. While "most permit holders are law-abiding citizens," he said, "there are too many unintentional shootings by permit holders."
But House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, is fine with it.
"If they're licensed permit carriers I think they'd probably be safe to have them in here," he said, and joked, "I'm more worried about members than I am about people walking in off the street."
Haslam cited the statutes to The Associated Press last week, saying, "So there's something to clarify there."
And "beyond the legal question," the governor added, "there's some logistical questions. We don't think that people should be able to bring weapons in [the Capitol]."
"If you come up the tunnel [from Legislative Plaza] and the elevator [to the Capitol] are we going to put a metal detector at that elevator and again on the other floor and then again downstairs?"
"How are we going to do all that?" Haslam said, adding that he's willing to "sit down and talk about that."
"That's their [legislators'] work environment. If they decide they want to do that, I'm willing to have that conversation. But we feel really strongly about the Capitol not being that way."
He dismissed the idea that people need to be able to protect themselves in the Capitol halls.
"This is a secure building. We've got metal detectors, we've got troopers with guns. So that argument goes out of the way on a building like this."
Several states do allow permit-holders to bring firearms into their Capitols.
Critics on both sides of the gun debate have long accused majority Republicans of hypocrisy by keeping the General Assembly a gun-free zone even as they keep expanding places where permit holders can carry their weapons, including voting to override local restrictions.
Lawmakers had a chance in 2015 to allow permit holders to go armed in the state Capitol complex.
They didn't take it.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, sought to call GOP lawmakers' bluff by amending a House-passed bill overriding local government bans on guns in local parks, public ball fields and playgrounds.
Yarbro's amendment opened up the state Capitol complex to permit holders as well. Put on the spot, Republican majority senators adopted it.
But Haslam objected and Republican House members balked, and a House/Senate conference committee tripped out the Yarbro amendment with little discussion.
Then lawmakers in both chambers voted to override local bans on permit holders carrying weapons in parks.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com, 615-255-0550 or follow via twitter at AndySher1.