March 3, 2023
Urgent - constitutional carry bills (HB1005 and SB1503) set to be heard the week of March 6, 2023.
House Bill 1005 and Senate Bill 1503 are set to be heard the week of March 6, 2023 in legislative committees. It is critical that you stand up and contact these committee members with your demands that they pass these bills this year.
Why is it critical? If you have not seen the video
of representatives from the Tennessee Department of Safety or the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation recently going into a House committee
hearing to tell your elected Representatives that “they” – on behalf of
Bill Lee and his administration – oppose enacting constitutional carry
you should take a minute and watch the video. It will infuriate most
of you. Use the TFA's advocacy tool to contact these committee members before March 7, 2023 - it is that critical!
Bills to be heard the week of March 6, 2023
Legislative committee calendars for the week of March 6, 2023, indicate that 13 different committees are scheduled to hear bills that being tracked by TFA.
Attached to this email is a calendar report of the bills, the dates and times when they are scheduled to be heard and TFA's preliminary comments. It is important to note that the legislature allows members to add amendments to bills, frequently that entirely rewrite the bill, prior to or even during the committee hearing. This is how some of the worst bills "get moving" because it is very hard to monitor these amendments in time to share them with those who receive this email.
A new feature of this report is that we were able to get the vendor to include "clickable" email addresses for committee members. There is even a clickable "email all" so that you can in one click email all committee members. We asked for it and we hope you use it frequently to "instruct" your elected officials.
It is important that you understand which bills are running and that you contact not only your elected officials but those on these committees and subcommittees about these bills.
Plan now to attend Gun Owners Lobby Day at the Tennessee Legislature on March 15, 2023!
We're looking forward
to seeing you at our annual Lobby Day for Tennessee gun owners in two weeks.
This year is more
important than most. We have the opportunity to see changes made that are REAL.
- Real Constitutional
Carry
- Real disassembling
of Gun-free zones
- Real corrections to the 'hand gun' language
If you haven't
attended a Lobby Day in the past, this is the year we need your voice heard in
the halls and chambers of the Tennessee Legislature at the Cordell Hull
Building in Nashville!
SHOW UP! SPEAK UP! Be part of the action and the fellowship.
On this day you will:
- Meet with
legislators
- Attend Committee Hearings (if there is a bill you want to testify before
committee on please notify us a week in advance)
- Be our guest for lunch and hear from guest speakers
Register now so we can get your Lobby Day packet emailed to
you!
Do NOT let a legislator serving on a committee or subcommittee reject your call or email by claiming or asking if you are one of their constituents! That be an expected response if all members of the respective house were considering the bill because it is "on the floor" but when these individual legislators serve on committees and subcommittees - often with perhaps just a handful of members, they are at that time representing all interested Tennesseans! If a committee member tries to respond by raising the "constituent" issue, please respond by insisting that for committee hearings all Tennesseans are the relevant constituent pool - and copy that email to the appropriate speaker of the House or Senate because that committee member might need a civics lesson.
Finally, as these bills start to move forward in the Tennessee
Legislature, it is important for 2nd Amendment advocates in and even
those who live outside of Tennessee to let the Legislators know that
they are demanding that all infringements on the rights protected by the
2nd and 14th Amendment be removed this year. To do that, it is
critical to let your voice be heard and TFA has provided this advocacy
tool to help in that regard. Use it to contact your legislators –
particularly since you are able to edit the message to express your
demands in your own words.
If you are aware of other bills that you think TFA should consider tracking, please let us know soon.
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