Legislative committee calendars for the week of February 20, 2023, indicate that 11 different committees are scheduled to hear bills that being tracked by TFA.

Attached to this email is a calendar report of the bills, the dates and times when they are scheduled to be heard and TFA's preliminary comments.  It is important to note that the legislature allows members to add amendments to bills, frequently that entirely rewrite the bill, prior to or even during the committee hearing.  This is how some of the worst bills "get moving" because it is very hard to monitor these amendments in time to share them with those who receive this email. 

A new feature of this report is that we were able to get the vendor to include "clickable" email addresses for committee members.  There is even a clickable "email all" so that you can in one click email all committee members.  We asked for it and we hope you use it frequently to "instruct" your elected officials.  

Particular bills to note and to contact legislators concerning:

HJR38 by Rep. Reedy would amend Article I, Section 26 of the state constitution to make it more consistent with the 2nd Amendment and the Bruen decision.  SUPPORT

HB1189 by Rep. Fritts would amend the existing law to protect manufacturers and dealers of firearms to disallow lawsuits in Tennessee like the one that attacked Remington Arms. SUPPORT

HB1005 by Rep. Grills would convert existing handgun permits to firearms permits and make other desirable changes.  SUPPORT

HB1158 by Rep. Todd, as amended, appears to move Tennessee much closer to REAL constitutional carry.  The bill was discussed in the House subcommittee this week and appears to have good support among the Republican members but that could change as it moves forward, particularly if it moves in the Senate. SUPPORT 

HB1307 by Rep. Kumar is a refiled bill from 2022 that seeks to take excess funds held by the Department of Safety from permit holder application fees and spend these as reimbursements to certified handgun instructors to teach handgun safety courses.  It is a bad idea, one evidencing "redistribution" of taxpayer funds and should be defeated.  The excess funds, estimated to be way over $20 million, should somehow be refunded to permit holders who had the funds.  OPPOSE.


Do NOT let a legislator serving on a committee or subcommittee reject your email by claiming or asking if you are one of their constituents!   That be an expected response if all members of the respective house were considering the bill because it is "on the floor" but when these individual legislators serve on committees and subcommittees - often with perhaps just a handful of members, they are at that time representing all interested Tennesseans!   If a committee member tries to respond by raising the "constituent" issue, please respond by insisting that for committee hearings all Tennesseans are the relevant constituent pool - and copy that email to the appropriate speaker of the House or Senate because that committee member might need a civics lesson.

Finally, as these bills start to move forward in the Tennessee Legislature, it is important for 2nd Amendment advocates in and even those who live outside of Tennessee to let the Legislators know that they are demanding that all infringements on the rights protected by the 2nd and 14th Amendment be removed this year. To do that, it is critical to let your voice be heard and TFA has provided this advocacy tool to help in that regard. Use it to contact your legislators – particularly since you are able to edit the message to express your demands in your own words.

If you are aware of other bills that you think TFA should consider tracking, please let us know soon.