A report on a visit by C. Richard Archie to the General Assembly on Wednesday, January 25, 2023.

I was privileged to have a sit down with the Speaker of the House on Wednesday, orchestrated by my State Rep, Chris Todd, and attended as well by Rep. Clay Doggett   The take away is that we will, in the House at least, face no Leadership opposition in achieving the removal of the criminal aspect of carrying a firearm, the inclusion of long guns into the permissible weapons list (basically removing TCA 39-171307(a)(1) and 1308 from the Code) and some realignment of “Public” place carry without penalty.

With respect to “gun free zones” the Speaker portends that “Private Property Rights” stand above 2nd  and 14th Amendment Rights with respect to who has the power to allow or disallow carry in stores.  The Mississippi scheme was mentioned, that possibly the Enhanced Permit Holders be able to carry past signs without criminal penalty, unless the management became aware of a firearm and ask the person to leave, which then would result in a criminal trespass.  No resolution was forthcoming at that time though lines of communication are still open regarding the issue.  I have forwarded the Federal code section 42 to the parties which I include below:

As always I repeated the fact that no agency of government is responsible for the production of safety or security for any individual, that burden being the sole purview of the individual.  The jury is still out on what the Tennessee General Assembly will ultimately “allow”.

It was clearly stated that there is expectation of positive movement of restorative measures of our rights in the House, due to the recent court cases which show heavy favor to our request, but that the Speaker could not be held accountable for the actions of the Senate, which mirrors the thoughts I have. Why a segment of our elected employees feels they have power to hold hostage enumerated rights is not clear to me, and repeatedly I asked for the location in our State Constitution where that is located, but so far I have not received an answer from any of these elected public stewards of our rights.

After the meeting with the House Speaker, I attended a meeting with a number of 2nd Amendment friendly Representatives at the invitation of Reps Chris Todd and Clay Doggett. Those House members present in this second meeting included Jay Reedy, Johnny Garrett (majority whip), Todd Warner, and a number of freshman Representatives, Jody Barrett, Monty Fritts, Kip Capley, Elaine Davis, Brian Richey, Gino Bulso, Brock Martin and William Slater.  Included in the invitees was a paid lobbyist for T-Rex Arms. 

To say that I was heartened in this second meeting by the general enthusiasm and support for the full expectation of returning the rights intended with respect to arms would be putting it mildly.  Representatives Barrett and Bulso are seasoned attorneys and well placed in committees.  Except for Fritts (who for some reason fell under the radar for support in the races earlier in the year, and which was grievous mistake on my part) we were monetarily invested in all their races.  This is without doubt the best freshman class of legislators in decades.

All that being said, we have a plan for moving forward.  That MUST include contact and advocacy in the Senate.  We, the people of Tennessee, are charged in Article 1 Section 23 of the Tennessee Constitution to “instruct your representatives” and it is time that you do your duty!

The recent Attorney General admission of the State’s guilt in committing Federal Civil Rights violations through the enactment by the Tennessee Legislature of laws that intentionally denied to most 18–20-year-olds the right to carry handguns has already shown several in the Tennessee Legislature that if they do not move back to what the United States Supreme Court said in the Bruen decision last summer, that there will be more federal civil rights cases filed in the courts.  Offering the Senate the chance to make themselves heroes of doing the right thing, instead of being spanked into admitting they were doing their best to deny our rights, is the tact we need to take.

If advocacy fails, we will be forced to pursue self-help by seeking the removal of the infringements – most of which were created by the Tennessee Legislature – by filing lawsuits the courts.

You can start exercising your constitutional right to “instruct your representatives” today by calling and contacting them with your demands that the current elected members of the Tennessee Legislature act immediately to remove the infringements that the Tennessee Legislators who have served in the past, and many are serving today, created. You can call them directly and/or you can use the letter writing tool that is now available for that purpose.