Governor Bill Lee wrote to the Tennessee Firearms Association in 2018 when he was running for the office of Governor and stated that he “would sign legislation that …”, had he kept his promise, would have put at least two laws into effect in Tennessee that address school security.  Since that promise was now almost five years old, presumably he meant that those promised laws would have been signed sometime early in or at least during his first term as Governor. 

Specifically, Bill Lee promised that as Tennessee’s Governor he would sign a law that “[p]ermits any law-abiding permit-holder to lawfully carry firearms on Tennessee college campuses.”   With respect to what occurred recently at Covenant School, Bill Lee promised that he would sign a law that  “[a]llows educators to be part of the school security solution and exercise their right to carry lawfully possessed firearms in the workplace.” 

As Governor, he has kept neither promise, well, at least not in the last 5 years.

With respect to the threats that exist for schools because they remain “gun free zones” in Tennessee, Governor Lee’s second promise is relevant.   One must ask whether there would be more victims alive today if the employees of the school had the choice under state law to carry self-defense firearms in the  school as he promised and at least indicated he supported when he was a candidate.  For those being laid to rest and  their families, the answer to that question, whatever it is, is now moot.

On April 3, 2023, Governor Lee took to the public podium to announce his plans to improve school security and reduce the potential for another targeted shooting on school grounds.  His proposal is to spend millions of dollars to place armed law enforcement officers in all public and private schools.  Indeed, his proposed vision for school security increasingly mirrors the image that some have for prison security – except that the guards will be armed and those secured in the buildings will not be locked in individual cells.

Nothing in his proposal on Monday contained any reference to what he told Tennessee Firearms Association in writing in 2018 that he would do – which was to allow school staff who choose to do so to be armed in order to defend their lives and by extension reduce the “gun free”.

Of greater concern to the Tennessee Firearms Association are the comments by Governor Lee that indicate he is asking the Legislature to propose legislation that addresses taking guns away from “a person who is a threat to themselves or a threat to others”.  That is a code-phrase for saying that Governor Lee, like Lt. Governor Randy McNally, would support what is commonly referred to as a “Red Flag” law.  

 

Although Governor Lee did state that any proposal must protect  “the constitutional rights of Tennesseans at the same time,” he gave no indication of how that might be even remotely possible following the United States Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen, et al, No: 20-843. 

The Supreme Court's Bruen decision places clear and significant restrictions on government discretion relative to "infringing" the right of the individuals to purchase, possess and carry firearms.  Those restrictions clearly indicate that Governor Lee’s support of a possible Red Flag law faces dooming constitutional prohibitions.  Under Bruen, in order to avoid violating the 2nd and 14th Amendments, the burden is now on government to demonstrate that any existing or proposed law is consistent with the "nation's historical tradition" of firearms regulations as that tradition existed among the original states in 1791. 

Indeed, there is a concern that Governor Lee, following the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, has failed to call for the Legislature to move forward this year with an immediate focus on identifying and repealing existing state laws and regulations that are now unconstitutional under the Bruen standards.

Certainly, calling for constitutionally sound changes in Tennessee law in order to reduce the risk of mass public shootings in gun free zones is appropriate.   But, calling for changes that only increase the size of government but still leave substantially infringed the rights of the individuals to provide for their own self-defense fails to honor the oath of an elected official to uphold and protect the provisions - all the provisions of the respective State and Federal constitutions.

 Contact Your Legislators!