Tennessee Gov. Bill HaslamIt’s hard to imagine that Gov. Bill Haslam honestly believes what he said Monday when he was asked, in the aftermath of the massacre of 20 children at a Connecticut elementary school, if Tennessee’s gun laws are tough enough. He said, wrongly, that Tennessee’s gun laws don’t need fixing. Then he added, with equal duplicity, that Tennessee’s only problem, if any, is the paucity of mental health care for potential shooters, a service he already has slashed.
There’s no question about Haslam’s chutzpah. He surely is aware of the gun-show loophole in Tennessee that’s big enough to drive a truckload of assault weapons through. As do some other states, Tennessee still allows anyone of legal age — criminals, gunrunners and straw-purchasers included — to walk into a wide-open, public gun show and buy a semi-automatic rifle or handgun and high-capacity bullet magazines without a background check. They can just pay cash, no questions asked, and walk out.
So we have to wonder if, rather than being heartless, Gov. Haslam is just kissing up to the National Rifle Association and its death-grip — we used that term advisedly — on Tennessee lawmakers who cross it. Or if he has just perfected a comedian’s deadpan timing for delivering a lame punchline while masking his true feelings about a deplorable status-quo.
In any case, no one is laughing at his response.
Not parents, whose children may be vulnerable to some deranged death-dealing gunman who might invade their school or the theater they patronize on a weekend with their friends.