For far longer than the last 11 years that the Republicans have held a super majority in the Tennessee Legislature efforts have been made by many in this state to get the Legislature, or at least a simple majority of it, to realize that the Second Amendment guarantees to every person who can legally own a firearm the right to do so by declaring to government at all levels that such individual right shall not be infringed.  That effort is proving to have many, more determined supporters today than it did in the past as discussed below.

On March 3, 2021, Rep. William Lambert presented House Bill 786 to the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee for debate. At the beginning of that presentation, Rep. Lamberth briefly describes the bill as “constitutional carry” and then he lists the various restrictions in terms of both the individuals who will be allowed by the state to exercise that right as well as noting that even those select individuals will only be able to carry handguns and not all firearms. He does explain in response to questioning that the bill would allow open or concealed carry.

Representative Hardaway asked the sponsor to consider raising the age limit to 25 by asserting that adults less than 25 years of age are not mentally mature. Rep. Lamberth rejected that request by nothing that there are many in this state and nation who are 18 and older who have have fought and died for the country and that they should be able to exercise all the freedoms and that freedom should be protected. Curiously, those same 18-20 year old individual who have for 2 centuries fought and died for freedom are still being denied by the Governor's bill the right protected by the Second Amendment.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Jerry Sexton noted that Rep. Lamberth refers to the legislation as “constitutional carry”. When Rep. Sexton asked Rep. Lamberth to define constitutional carry he described it as “an individual right to bear arms that shall not be infringed…. and that is what the amendment that we just passed a second ago does – it prevents any infringement on your right to bear arms.”  (See video clip) The context suggests that for Rep. Lamberth the capacity to exercise that right starts for most people at age 21 and for those between 18 and 21 the right somehow attaches only if they are in or have served in the military.

Rep. Jerry Sexton continued by stating “Its my understanding and I will ask you [Rep. Lamberth] if you agree with this that whenever the permit was imposed, it would be unconstitutional and what we are trying to do here is bring it back into agreement with the constitution that we have the right to keep and bear arms….” In response, Rep. Lamberth stated “… under our current permit process, it is certainly I think a violation of your 2nd Amendment and 4th Amendment rights and others because unless you’ve got that permit and paid that fee you can’t full the destiny that our Founders intended in this country to exercise your freedoms.”  Again, based on the structure of the bill, that statement appears to exclude most 18-20 year olds who apparently do or don't have rights depending on whether they are in or were in the military.

Next, Rep. Bill Beck stated that it is constitutionally permissible to require permits. Rep. Jerry Sexton immediately responds with “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Constitutional carry is just that Constitutional Carry. Sometimes the courts get it wrong but our Forefathers got it right. And no matter how much you say it or how you say it – this right shall not be infringed upon….”

The committee video has been edited down to just a few minutes to provide the reference for the statements in this report. However, it also underscores that there are forces at work in our Legislature who are adverse to the full scope of the right that is protected by the Constitution’s 2nd Amendment and that we do have some legislators who are working this year to eliminate the infringements - all the infringements at least pertaining to real constitutional carry - which the 2nd Amendment declares are prohibited.

While TFA’s goal is to eliminate the unconstitutional infringements and TFA fully stands with and supports Legislators who are working hard to reach this goal, TFA is also working to encourage voters and constituents to be aware that the Governor’s Bill – SB765 and HB786 – while moving the ball down the field for some is not real constitutional carry because it perpetuates infringements on the rights of those who are old enough to fight and die for this nation and it only extends the free exercise of that right to a minor subset of the full spectrum of arms that the 2nd Amendment prohibits from infringements.