The Tennessee Firearms Association is criticizing Gov. Bill Lee’s push for what it calls a “red flag law,” saying he wants to pass an unconstitutional measure as an emotional reaction to the shooting at The Covenant School.
“Gov. Lee called for the legislature to react to the emotional response of some citizens after the Covenant murders and more particularly after the expulsion of two Democrat House members who demanded gun control,” Executive Director John Harris said in a Wednesday statement. “Nothing in Bruen authorized knee-jerk emotional responses to murders or the calls of progressive Democrats and their mobs to justify government infringement of a right protected by the Constitution.”
The association contends Lee’s plan would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Justices found the Second and 14th Amendments guarantee Americans the right to keep firearms in their homes and to bear arms in public, including the ability of citizens to carry firearms for self-defense outside the home, without infringement from state and federal governments.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, based in part on the court’s decision in Bruen, reached an agreement with a California gun rights group that sued the state over its permitless carry law and agreed to drop the gun-carry age to 18. Two bills to lower the age to 18 are hung up in committees.