Photo Credit: Michael E. Cumpston / CC
Published May 4, 2021
By Jon Styf [The Center Square contributor] –
The Tennessee House voted Monday evening to make the state a Second Amendment sanctuary.
The House adopted Senate Bill 1335, which passed last week in the Senate. It “affirms that any law, treaty, executive order, rule, or regulation of the United States government” that violates the Second Amendment is unenforceable.
That violation would have to be determined by either the Tennessee or U.S. Supreme Court. Any official that would then attempt to enforce the unconstitutional law would then be subject to ouster.
The bill now will head to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.
“Contrary to the messaging that’s out there, Democrats are not for taking your guns away from you,” Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said while supporting the bill. “So let’s end that bad messaging that y’all are putting out there about us.”
Parkinson’s lone complaint about the bill was it didn’t include an amendment, which was withdrawn, preventing gun buybacks.
“It’s only law-abiding citizens who show up,” Parkinson said. “It’s exploitation of poor people.”
Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, said he was hoping the legislation would not affect any federal ban on bump stocks.
Bill sponsor Rep. Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, said what would be affected by the bill could be determined only by either supreme court.
“I know what I would like to see,” Campbell told Mitchell. “That would be much different than what you would see.”
Mitchell said he would like to see bump stocks banned, especially after the Waffle House shooting in Antioch in 2018 that killed four people and injured four others, and wouldn’t want this bill to stand in the way of enforcing that ban. Mitchell also said he felt the court would take at least three years to make a ruling on something like a new law.
“We don’t want to bury several more people because of bump stocks,” Mitchell said. “I hope every law enforcement agency in this state does their job and enforces that ban.”
While Senate discussion of the bill centered around whether the bill was nullification of federal law and whether that was possible. The House did not discuss nullification.
9 Responses
Bump stocks. Ohhh, scary scary bump stocks. Maybe we should make murder illegal …
In other news, “Contrary to the messaging that’s out there, Democrats are not for taking your guns away from you,” Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said. Apparently Rep. Parkinson doesn’t listen to what the President of the U.S. and his crazy cabal are saying these days, does he?
Does the Representative from Memphis really think we believe that Democrats do not want to take our guns? Maybe Democrat gun owners believe that lie but no one else does. Democrats have proven that the Representative’s words are simply not true!
Good law! Now let’s make Tennessee a 2nd Amendment open-or-concealed-carry state. Criminals don’t purchase gun permits, why should law abiding citizens?
Already have and the law takes effect July 1, 2021 but if you live in Tennessee and leave the State there is no reciprocity so if you have a TN permit and travel out of state it’s recommended to maintain said permit.
It has already been signed and goes in affect 1 July.
Congrats to the Tennessee Congressional Body for passing this Law. Now lets see you folks pass a similar law to the State of Florida, with regards to rioters and other criminals who openly break the law. Stiff penalties for thugs who break State Laws.
I totally agree with you about passing laws similar to the State of Florida. We need to do whatever we can in this state to make sure our citizens are safe from rioters and looters.
Already have….Aug 2020 Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) quietly signed a bill into law ramping up punishments for certain kinds of protests, including losing the right to vote.
Any Federal Law that is in violation of ANY Constitutional Amendment , or such government that inserts itself into anything that is not specified as within the Federal Government’s right to do so , should be NULL AND VOID.
Anyone , including Federal Agents, who try to enforce such unconstitutional illegal ” laws ” within the State of Tennessee should be arrested, tried, and imprisoned for such an offense.