NASHVILLE — Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is coming under criticism from some Democratic lawmakers for agreeing with a California-based gun rights organization on a proposed order in the group’s pending federal lawsuit in Knoxville that if approved by the judge would extend the state’s handgun-carry law, conceal-carry permit and “permitless” carry provisions to 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.
The law currently excludes 18- to 20- year-olds from qualifying for the provisions unless they are serving in the military or have done so.
“It is yet another example of the Tennessee attorney general making political decisions instead of legal decisions,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville attorney, said during an interview in his office. “Here you obviously have the Tennessee attorney general’s office waving the white flag on an issue that they have a duty to defend, rather than actually defend it zealously.”
The proposed order, filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee, had yet to be approved by Judge Katherine A. Crytzer, who is presiding over the case, as of Monday afternoon.
Skrmetti spokeswoman Elizabeth Lane said in an email the state had gone along with the agreed order based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s broad handgun-carry ruling last year.