March 30, 2018
Bill Status and Calendar Reports
Bill status and calendar reports for bills that have had activity in the Legislature this week as well as bills that are scheduled to be heard over the upcoming two weeks. Please review these materials and feel free to share them with your friends, family and others who may be interested.
Of particular note, there are a couple of good bills set to be heard in the next 2 weeks - just a couple. However, there are many bad bills scheduled as well. While some of these have Democrat sponsors in the House and Senate, several have only Republican sponsors.
Also, what we are also expecting is that pending bills which looked "harmless" or "helpful" are likely going to be amended in ways to do things entirely different than what the original filed bill proposed. This kind of shenanigans is allowed by Beth Harwell, Randy McNally and their committee chairs because they know that misdirection and surprise is how to pass things with the "people" realizing what they are really doing.
UPDATE: As previously reported, the Tennessee Legislature continues to move closer to"targeting" and removing constitutional rights of non-violent felons - even those with pardons or who have had their rights fully restored by court order!
The Tennessee Senate Judiciary committee unanimously approved a bill (SB2528 by Ketron and HB2254 by Sargent) which appears intended to take rights away from nonviolent felons who have already served their time and completed their punishment - even if they have a pardon or a court ordered restoration of their rights. That bill was scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor but for some reason has been placed by in the Calendar committee (perhaps to slip it back on the floor when no one is watching). However, the House version of the bill continues to move forward.
As noted last week, Senator Ketron explained on his presentation on video that the bill was brought to him by the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police. This is the entity truly behind the attempt to infringe 2nd Amendment rights. Sen. Ketron described the bill is only a "cleanup bill". He did not say that it would permanently, for life prohibit some with non-violent felon convictions from EVER getting their full rights of citizenship restored nor was there any testimony or evidence that prohibiting nonviolent felons whose rights have been restored have historically or reasonably would become violent felons if allowed to have access to firearms [Note: Under TN law in TCA 39-17-1307(c)(1) non-violent felons are only prohibited handguns but this change would potentially expand that ban to all firearms and for life].
Again, the question is why are these legislators doing this even after the problem has been brought to their attention by TFA?
The answer is government law enforcement officials -- including those who are members of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police and probably others. We understand also that even the NRAILA has indicated it has no objection to what these bills will do.
This year, however, it seems that the Legislature is rushing to pass new bills that have the effect of further infringement of the rights recognized and protected by the 2nd Amendment. Why are they not doing what they said they would do and supporting those rights? Why are they listening to taxpayer funded law enforcement administrators who have a history of being on the wrong side of the 2nd Amendment in Tennessee?
TFA is just alerting you to what is happening and encouraging you to think through it and contact your legislators.
Let your voice be heard and contact your legislators on this and other legislation. You can identify your legislators on this website tool.
John Harris
Tennessee Firearms Association
Executive Director
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