Gov. Bill Lee said Monday he hopes an upcoming special session will allow him to work with lawmakers on public safety gun reforms that did not pass during the regular session that ended last week.
"There needs to be a way to separate those who are a danger to others and to themselves from access to weapons and protect Second Amendment rights," Lee told reporters Monday following a bill signing in Chattanooga.
A start date for the session has not been set, Lee said.
(READ MORE: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee calls for special session to pass public safety legislation)
Lee announced Friday he would be calling the special session, just hours after the legislature ended its regular lawmaking session for the year.
In a statement, he said he made the decision after getting input from lawmakers and legislative leadership. On Monday, he said that input mostly centered on the "appropriateness of calling a special session, the timing of that session" and "what the goals of that would be."
"There is always a cost to taxpayers," Lee said Monday. "I really believe that this is something that taxpayers want us to do. I think we owe it to Tennesseans to have a vote on a way forward, and that will allow us to do this."
Very little gun-related legislation was passed this session after Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, tabled bills about firearms in response to the March shooting at Nashville's Covenant School that left seven people dead including three 9-year-old children and the shooter.
According to police, shooter Audrey Hale was a former student who had documented mental health issues and had been receiving treatment.
Toward the end of the session, Lee signed an executive order tightening background checks for gun purchases. He also urged lawmakers to pass a law allowing courts to temporarily order guns removed from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others, but no such legislation made it through the statehouse in time.
Lee said Monday there should be a high burden of proof required before someone has access to guns temporarily taken, and that law enforcement should be involved in the process.
"What we need to do is agree on what needs to be the outcome," Lee said.
In other states, those kinds of policies have been dubbed "red flag" laws and have earned hard opposition from some gun-rights purists.
"What we proposed is very different from red flag laws," Lee said Monday.
Lee told reporters Monday that he hopes the special session will give lawmakers enough time to come up with a workable version of an extreme risk protection order law.
"There is a desire to accomplish that which I alluded to earlier, which is to provide broad protections to the public from those who intend harm, and to protect rights," Lee said. "The General Assembly wants to do that as well, we all agree that that's the strategy."
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.