Current Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was already successful as the CEO of a Legacy Services company based in Franklin.  He was the owner of an impressive reputation from employees and customers alike, so it was not surprising that he made a successful run for Governor.

Then just Bill Lee was a principled, compassionate, friendly soul whose instincts were almost always right.  His Christian Faith informed his decision-making, allowing him to navigate difficult cultural questions with ease.  As long as Bill Lee listened to Bill Lee, he was winning at life.

During the campaign for Governor, I met with then Bill Lee and responded to many of his concerns about criticisms coming from the right.  I tried to let him know that Conservatives in Tennessee were fed up with half-baked Republicans and that, if he really wanted to be Governor, he would let his Conservative bona fides that flowed out of his Faith resound loudly to the public.  I reminded him that he wasn’t going to please everyone, but that he needed to stay true to the Bill of Rights, especially the 2nd and 10th Amendments.

Later that season, he was feted along with other Gubernatorial Candidates at the Wilson County Reagan Day Dinner.  During his speech, he told the audience what he believed to be the essence of the 2nd Amendment.  I was frankly surprised at the detail that he expressed.  Here is a synopsis:

The 2nd Amendment was not suggested nor ratified for Americans to be able to hunt or for their personal defense.  He was particularly specific that the Founders had just thrown off oppression and gained their liberty with their own personal firearms.  He affirmed that the 2nd Amendment had been p[laced in the Bill of Rights to specifically give citizens the right to do what the Declaration declares emphatically, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.” He received thundering applause.

Later, in a letter specifically addressed to members of the Tennessee Firearms Association, Lee said he would sign legislation to allow Constitutional Carry, to allow the bearing of arms on public property, to defend the 10th Amendment and prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to violate Constitutional Rights, to allow permit holders to carry on college campuses, and allow educators to be a part of school security solutions and to lawfully be armed.

He signed a watered-down version that could loosely be called Constitutional Carry.  The state statute still stands that the possession of a firearm in Tennessee is illegal (Look it up.) and our weak-kneed Republican Leaders continue to promote the long list of “exceptions”.

I’ll let the reader determine if he has kept the rest of his promises.

Well, old Bill Lee was elected Governor.  And if he had brought people like me onto his staff, we could have kept him centered in his pre-election principles.  But, alas, he opted for a bunch of Haslam holdovers and wannabe lobbyists who spend their entire lives on the Hill screwing the people of Tennessee.

The “new and improved” Bill Lee has stopped listening to Bill Lee.  Instead, he is allowing the Tennessee Sheriffs Association, TN Department of Safety, School Boards Association, Tennessee Chiefs of Police and every Democrat in the State to dictate his “new” outlook.  Some knucklehead down there has convinced him that the Justice Department at any level can be trusted to make reasonable decisions under a Red Flag Statute that only individuals who are “really” a threat to themselves and others to have their 2nd Amendment rights stripped from them.

He has actually been convinced that the judges in Tennessee would refrain from punishing their enemies in this fashion.  A simple thirty-minute cruise through the news would convince any freedom-loving Tennessean that a Government with this much power has no business deciding without due process that a Tennessean should be stripped of his/her (There are only two options.) rights.

As a member of TFA I am calling on Governor Lee to return to his roots and listen to the old Bill Lee, the one that Tennesseans elected, not the unimproved Bill Lee who has difficulty connecting with his past life and believes the people surrounding him know better than the guy who actually runs the state.

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