A bill to ban severely mentally ill individuals from facing the death penalty is a bill worth supporting. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, an estimated 45% of inmates have some sort of mental illness or disorder – almost half.
This past December, a Tennessee man was executed who could have benefited from this bill. He was subjected to sexual and physical abuse as a child, and because of that trauma experienced mental illness in adulthood. This bill will help those like him from receiving harsh punishment.
The bill needs help and support to gain more attention. I applaud the Chattanooga Times Free Press for writing an article and bringing the issue to light.
Those in opposition may think eliminating the death penalty for those with severe mental illnesses will allow horrendous crimes to go unpunished, but this is just not the case. Instead, it will only grant those who are severely mentally unstable the opportunity of life, even if is life behind bars.
It is my hope that future legislation will offer further help in the health of the mentally ill, but until then, I believe we are moving in the right direction.
Jewell Lavalas, Collegedale
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Gun bills would weaken training
There is a bill in committees of the General Assembly today that would make Tennessee’s permitting system weaker.
Currently in Tennessee in order for someone to carry a loaded firearm in public, they must have a permit to do so. I support this common sense public safety measure.
Currently, part of the expectations for receiving this permit is that one must demonstrate the ability to discharge their firearm. In this new bill, there would be no requirement to receive this type of training. It is like eliminating the driving part of the driver’s license requirement.
I do not always have peace of mind around firearms, but it gives me peace of mind to know that the person carrying that weapon in public has received formal training.
I implore those reading, make your voices heard about common sense gun issues, call your Senator and House member about HB 1264 and SB 705.
Jamie Gaines, Signal Mountain
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Targeting voter drives is voting suppression
Most democratic governments consider participating in elections a right of citizenship. Some consider such participation a civic responsibility. In some countries, voting has been made compulsory and has been embodied in national constitutions and electoral laws. Some countries go so far as to impose sanctions on non-voters.
Voting is mandatory in Belgium and there are consequences for not voting that include providing a legitimate reason for abstention to avoid sanctions, fines, possible imprisonment (for not paying the fines) and difficulty getting a job within the public sector. There are 38 countries that have laws that provide for compulsory voting including most of the Western democracies.
The United States has a sordid history of voter suppression that includes purging voter rolls, limiting early and absentee voting, transgender disenfranchisement, disinformation about voting procedures, inequality of election day resources, caging lists, gerrymandering, off-year elections, poll taxes and literacy tests.
In Tennessee, a state with one of the lowest voter registration rates in the country, a bill under consideration would subject groups that hold voter registration drives to potential jail time and fines making it harder to help people register to vote. Yogi Berra might think this seems like “deja vu all over again.”
T. William Alexander