First, let us acknowledge the sacrifices made by so many this day in 1775 when individual American citizens, acting collectively as part of the militia and also often independently, took up arms in the name of freedom against a British tyrant who was sending armed troops to confiscate their firearms, ammunition and cannon.  Thus was the battle of civilians against the tyrant's professional soldiers at Lexington and Concord.  That battle, that inception of these sovereign states to terminate their existing form of government and adopt a new one, is one of the examples that reinforce the primary reason for the Second Amendment.  It is not hunting, recreation or even solely self-defense.  It's purpose was quite candidly to ensure the security of a free state by guaranteeing that the civilians would always have arms of sufficient quantity and capacity to defeat a tyrant and its professional army.  Sadly, looking at America today and at those who are in control of government, it is a right whose purpose continues.  As has often been said, this nation must be defended against enemies both foreign and domestic and it is a foolish concept to pretend that we do not today have domestic tyrants in this nation.

Turning to this legislative cycle, the Republican legislative super majority has proven yet again that it is either unwilling or unable (unlikely) to truly embrace and support the rights that the Second Amendment protects from government infringement.  There is no way that this failure can ignored although it is certainly celebrated by Bill Lee, his administration, gun control advocates (including those whose jobs are taxpayer funded) and their friends in the Republican caucus in the Legislature.

This Republican super majority, under the leadership of Randy McNally and Cameron Sexton, has thus far once again said "no" to numerous bills that would do nothing more than remove unconstitutional restrictions existing under state and local law on the rights that are protected, absolutely protected, from government infringement by the Second Amendment.  These Republicans, collectively and in many instances, individually, have chosen at path that, unless corrected in the remaining hours of the 2024 legislative session, will document for the history books that tyranny vis-a-vis the Second Amendment persists in Tennessee on the coat tails of the broken campaign promises of certain Republicans. 

Their chosen actions in the last 2 years:

- will deprive Tennesseans of the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment pertaining to the right to keep, bear and wear arms until perhaps 2030 at the earliest;

- will deprive Tennesseans of REAL constitutional carry;

- will deprive Tennesseans of the right to chose to carry longarms;

- will deprive Tennesseans of the repeal of of the statutory "21 and up" restrictions;

- will deprive Tennesseans of the repeal of certain statutes that create unconstitutional gun free zones;

- will deprive Tennesseans of effective options to compel the state to prove that an incident was not lawful self-defense before forcing them to undergo and endure a baseless criminal trial;

- will deprive Tennesseans of access to public records regarding certain mass public shootings; and

- will deprive Tennesseans of the full benefit of the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Heller, McDonald and Bruen.

And these deprivations are just the ones related to the Second Amendment! 

Indeed, because the Republican leadership have used the respective committee systems to further this shenanigans, Tennesseans have been effectively disenfranchised because almost all of the bills that have were sidelined, defeated or otherwise stonewalled have suffered those fates at the hands of a select minority of legislators - all appointed by either Randy McNally or Cameron Sexton - in the committees rather than in votes on both floors where all 132 Legislators would have been able to cast their votes.  Thus, in some instances true Second Amendment reform legislation would be frequently killed by less than 10 of the 132 total legislators leaving most legislators with the "excuse" that they did not have the opportunity to vote "for" the bill.   That is unacceptable.  That should be view by voters as a breach of their respective oaths and a basis, standing in isolation or in combination, for replacing many of them in the 2024 elections.

The TFA's calendar report for the week of April 22, 2024, shows only 2 bills to be heard in committee next week.  One of them appears dead, unfortunately, having died as a result of the shenanigans of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee under the oversight of Sen. Bo Watson.   The other (HB2035) is to be heard in the House Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday and has already passed the Senate.  It would restrict local governments from enacting local extreme risk protection orders.

The 2024 TFA Legislative survey has been sent to the printer for distribution.  Responses are due by mid-May.  We predict most incumbent legislators will ignore the survey because they do not want to be on record as to what issues they do or do not support when it comes to the Second Amendment.   The survey results should be ready for distribution in June and will be posted on the TFA's website(s).

Richard Archie has released another videocast that warrants a few minutes of your time. The video discusses, initially, the votes on legislation sponsored by then state Senator Mark Green in 2016 which attempted to enact constitutional carry almost a decade ago.  It chronicles the 2016 votes of two Senators, Todd Gardenhire and John Stevens, that respectively and independently killed Mark Green's attempt to move forward with legislation to enact constitutional carry.   It is noteworthy that these two continued through 2024 to serve on the Senate Judiciary and that these two are facing challengers in their 2024 re-election bids.