As we have discussed in other reports, there is a potentially troubling
"aura" surrounding the permitless carry efforts that TFA has pursued now
for two decades which aura is even more revealed this year than normal.
Several Senate and House members have openly stated on the record that
the Governor's bill (HB786/SB765) is not true constitutional carry - a
fact obvious to anyone who can comprehend the unequivocal phrase "shall
not be infringed". But, these statements on the legislative record by Senate Judiciary Chair Mike Bell, Senator Kerry Roberts, Rep. William Lamberth and even Speaker Cameron Sexton
all suggest that although they know the Governor's bill falls short of
the requirements of the 2nd Amendment that there is some unnamed and
unidentified obstruction, roadblock or greater power at work which is
actively denying Tennessean's the uninfringed right to exercise the
rights protected by the Second Amendment.
One
of the House members who has offered up a much better bill on this
issue is Rep. Bruce Griffey. He has also offered other conservative
topic bills that for undisclosed reasons are almost uniformly derailed.
On Thursday, March 25, Speaker Cameron Sexton took the unusual step to
punish Rep. Griffey by unilaterally removing him from all committee
assignments with no public details about what might have occurred to
warrant such extreme action by the Speaker. However, there is a
statement made by Speaker Cameron Sexton in the developing yet fully
undisclosed dispute that might shed some possible light on what or who
the powers are that are intentionally blocking true constitutional carry
in Tennessee.
First, understand that the House committee system generally operates so
that bills are assigned to committees and move along generally
established paths to either defeat in the committees or to come to the
floor for consideration by all 99 House members. Many bills are
routinely killed in these committees often by as few as a handful of
votes. This has happened to 2nd Amendment legislation regularly during
the decade that the Republican super majority has controlled the
Legislature.
The
House rules contain safety-valve for committee derailments which safety
valve protects the rights of all Tennesseans to have their elected
representatives have a voice on significant legislation. That safety
valve is a provision for a "recall motion" under Rule 53 which allows a
motion to be filed on the House floor (the Senate has a similar rule) to
"recall" a motion from the committee system directly to the House
floor. It can be used, as written, to recall a bill that has been
blocked or defeated in the committees so long as the House or Senate
members vote on the floor to recall the bill. That is not some secret
tactic or swampy shenanigans - it is expressly contained in the printed
rules.
Now, news reports this week indicate that Rep. Bruce Griffey had a bill on the issue of E-verify that had been killed in a House committee. Apparently at the urging of his constituents – the voters – he used the recall rule to bring this to the attention of the entire House body to see if he could get the required vote to salvage the bill. The process is not used often but it is part of the House rules. When Rep. Bruce Griffey tried to use the Rule, it was reportedly blocked by Speaker Sexton.
News 17 in Nashville published this quote by Speaker Sexton regarding the issue:
“There are certain expectations that must be met by members of the Tennessee House of Representatives. These include maintaining decorum and professionalism, as well as respect for others, and perhaps most importantly, respect for our longstanding committee process. If any or all of these expectations become an issue, appropriate actions will be taken — including removing a member from his or her committee assignments.”
It is not clear but this quote from Speaker Sexton seems to suggest that the Speaker’s actions of removing Rep. Bruce Griffey from all of his committee assignments (damaging his constituents’ voice in the legislature) may have been a punishment, at least in some degree, for trying to use an existing House rule to bring an issue to the floor after the committee system was used to kill the measure.
If it turns out that Speaker Sexton has punished a House member for using a House rule then that is an issue that may call for more inquiry because it is a level of power that could explain why the bills on REAL constitutional carry, including one by Rep. Griffey, have been blocked in the House committees and are unlikely to be debated and voted upon by all House members on the floor. There is some reason why legislator after legislator have commented that the Governor’s bill falls short of the 2nd Amendment this year and observing that its the most that could be obtained. Is this level of power one of those reasons? Is the failure of the Legislature to even debate REAL constitutional carry on the floor of the Senate or the House so far this year or for most of the last 2 decades solely because a few people – perhaps 2 or 3, perhaps only 1 – opposes it so vehemently that other legislators are unwilling to bring up the issue in a context where all 99 House members or all 33 Senators would be called up to publicly vote on the issue?
Note: as of the time of this message, the House has not released its calendar for March 29. However, the Bill status report identifies those bills in the House that are expected to be heard on Monday March 29 including HB786 which is the Governor’s bill
