Liberal Tennessee Mayors Call For More Gun Control

Image: Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly Image Credit: City of Chattanooga – Government / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Last week, Governor Bill Lee announced the signing of an executive order to strengthen background checks for guns in Tennessee, as legislators continue to debate the topic of gun control in response to the Covenant School shooting.

The executive order purported to have three main objectives:

1. If someone commits a crime, relevant criminal information would now be entered into the Tennessee Instant Check System (TICS) or provided to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) within 72 hours after an entity like law enforcement learns of it.

2. Ensure that circuit, chancery and general sessions courts “accurately, completely, and timely” submit relevant information to the TBI’s FlexCheck database, or directly with the TBI.

3. The TBI will review the TICS system to see if any improvements can be made, and report their findings to the governor and legislative leaders by June 10th of this year.

He also asked for an “order of protection” to keep guns away from individuals who law enforcement officials deem to be ‘dangerous.’

Following that order, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, along with mayors from Knoxville, Nashville, and Shelby County, sent a letter addressed to Governor Bill Lee, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Governor Randy McNally, calling for reduced “gun violence”.

Included in the letter were the following recommendations from the mayors: 

Requiring background checks for all gun purchases,

Implement extreme risk protection orders,

• Enhanced safety of Tennessee’s concealed carry law,

• Establish a statewide minimum age for buying firearms,

• Require and enable secure storage of guns,

• Limit gun thefts from cars,

• Ban high-capacity magazines,

• Prohibit convicted stalkers from owning guns,

• Provide money for school threat assessment teams, and

• Require reporting of lost and stolen guns.

Mayor Tim Kelly told News Channel 9, “I was encouraged by Governor Lee’s executive order strengthening background checks and hope he will seriously consider these additional common sense policies to help keep guns away from people who may be a danger to themselves or others.”

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com