For more than a decade, Tennessee Republicans have held effective control over state government. Since 2011, the governor’s office has been occupied solely by Republicans – first Bill Haslam and now Bill Lee – while commanding supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly under the leadership of Lt. Governor Randy McNally, Speaker Cameron Sexton, Senator Jack Johnson and Representative William Lamberth.

With that level of political dominance came a clear opportunity – and, more significantly, an undeniable obligation – to protect and restore the constitutionally protected rights of Tennesseans and visitors to Tennessee. Indeed, these elected officials took oaths of office that are mandated by Tennessee’s citizens in their constitution that impose that duty on each elected and appointed official.

Instead, despite years of campaign promises and public assurances of unwavering support for the Second Amendment and the federal and state constitutions, these leaders and the Republican super majority purposefully have left in place statutes that intentionally criminalize the very conduct and activities that the State and federal Constitutions not only protect but which they also declare “shall not be infringed,” by the government including its officials.

For years, citizens and advocacy organizations, including the Tennessee Firearms Association, have warned the elected officials that Tennessee’s “intent to go armed” statute, its firearm prohibitions in public parks and numerous other state and local restrictions were unconstitutional. Those warnings were not speculative; they were grounded in the text of the Second Amendment and the Tennessee Constitution. These warnings were later reinforced by the analytical framework set out in repeated United States Supreme Court opinions including New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022).

Yet, even with repeated calls for reform and the admonitions of the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee’s Republican leadership in government failed to act. The General Assembly did not repeal these laws. The Governors did not demand their repeal – indeed, their administrations through the Department of Safety and the TBI consistently defended them. Instead, these clearly unconstitutional restrictions remained in force year after year under a government that claimed, some would say falsely, to be the strongest defender of constitutional rights. A government that was totally under the control of individuals who identified as Republicans.

It ultimately took citizen litigation to force accountability. In August 2025, a unanimous three-judge trial court panel in Hughes v. Lee declared Tennessee’s “intent to go armed” and parks statutes unconstitutional, void and unenforceable. The court concluded that the State had failed to carry its burden to justify laws that criminalized the right to bear arms. This was not a narrow or technical ruling – it was a sweeping judicial branch rejection of laws that had existed for years under absolute Republican control of the other two branches of government. The judiciary did what the political branches refused to do: it enforced the Constitution. Who were the Defendants in that lawsuit? Governor Bill Lee in his official capacity and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in his official capacity. The ruling leaves little, if any, room to dispute the trial court’s conclusions.

And yet, even after that decisive ruling, the response from Republican leadership and the Republican caucus in the Legislature was not swift correction. Instead, it was more denial, delay and resistance. First, Governor Lee and Attorney General Skrmetti appealed the ruling. Some Republican Legislators, like Representative Chris Todd, went immediately to Facebook and encouraged the appeal.

Then, during the 2026 legislative session, some bills were introduced to repeal the unconstitutional statutes, but those efforts stalled under the control of legislative leadership and the hand-picked committee leadership. Measures were delayed, deferred, or left to die in committee as the session clock has nearly run out. At the same time, the State – under the authority of Bill Lee and with the participation of the Attorney General – chose to continue to appeal the ruling rather than accept it and bring Tennessee law into compliance with the Constitution. These are not the actions of leaders urgently seeking to correct unconstitutional statutes; they are the actions of government tyranny choosing to violate your rights and their oaths by working to preserve the constitutional crisis.

Indeed, on March 23, 2026, Senate Judiciary Chairman Todd Gardenhire took it upon himself to “continue” several of the bills that were pending in that committee to an unspecified date in 2027 – a date far beyond the last possible date for consideration in the 114th General Assembly. Reportedly, he did not alert the other committee members that he was going to do this and, by his actions he took it upon himself to deny to the other 32 Senators the authority to even consider and debate these bills. Worse, of the 9 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 7 of them are Republicans (including Gardenhire). The other Republicans are Bobby Harshbarger, Kerry Roberts, Paul Rose, John Stevens, Brent Taylor, and Dawn White. So far, there is no public evidence that any of those six have complained about Gardenhire’s actions, that any of those six have challenged it with Senate leadership, that any of those six have taken action under Senate Rules to remedy Gardenhire’s abuses or that any have taken any other action to bring the bills “Back From the Future” to be addressed here and now. Further, there is no public evidence that lame duck Lt. Governor Randy McNally or Senate Republican Leader Jack Johnson (who likely covets the office of Lt. Governor) have done anything to remedy Gardenhire’s abuses. Their silence raises questions about whether leadership supported or acquiesced in these actions.

And, Gardenhire’s abuse is not solely a Senate issue. It also impacts the viability of the companion bills in the House rendering those moot as well (other than for election propaganda purposes). But, like the Senate, House Republicans and House leadership have effective tools to remedy his abuses. The House super majority could, for example, declare any remaining Senate sponsored bills “dead” in the House. The House, as the originator of the budget, could essentially table all budget work conditioned on the Senate’s reversal of Gardenhire’s unilateral actions. The House could hold session open indefinitely by delay tactics in an election year to force the Senate to remedial actions. Will it do any of those? Certainly not if Gardenhire’s actions were not unilateral but were instead part of a wider Republican conspiracy to disregard the constitutional rights of citizens and the Hughes ruling.

This week will evidence whether individual Republican House and Senate members will honor their oaths and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens. Based on past patterns they will choose not to do so – except perhaps with a few individuals who serve with honor and allegiance to their oaths.

This public record exposes a fundamental failure of leadership and the knowing and intentional infringement of your civil rights.

When elected officials campaign as defenders of constitutional rights, take an oath to uphold those rights, and then refuse to act – even after a court has declared the law unconstitutional – the issue is no longer one of mere policy disagreement. No. It is a question of credibility and duty. Republican leadership in Tennessee had the votes, the authority, and the time to fix these laws – for more than a decade – without litigation. They chose not to. When forced by the courts to confront that failure, they still chose delay over action

.

The conclusion is unavoidable: this was not a lack of power, and it was not a lack of opportunity. It was a lack of will. The same leadership that campaigns on constitutional fidelity—Bill Lee, Randy McNally, and Cameron Sexton—presided over years in which unconstitutional laws remained in effect, forced citizens to bear the burden of litigation to vindicate their rights, and then failed to deliver meaningful legislative reform even after losing in court. That is not what it means to defend the Constitution.

When a political party holds for even a few years – much less 16 years:

and still leaves unconstitutional laws in place – that is not gridlock. That is a purposeful decision.

And, that decision by these Republicans deserves an indictment:

This is not what constitutional fidelity looks like. It is what political avoidance looks like.

Citizens must be prepared to reject the re-election bids of every Legislator who had the opportunity to demand that these issues be heard on the floors and passed. They must be prepared to expose and indict the ones who had greater authority – those in leadership and committee members – for their conspiracy to violate constitutionally protected rights. They must be prepared to elect new Legislators and a new Governor who have openly and clearly condemned the failures of these state officials and who are sworn solemnly to repeal these laws and to remove the Legislature leaders who are at fault.

1. Contact your legislators to demand that they ensure that these two statutes are repealed before they adjourn this year.
   
   
2. Insist that your legislators demand the amendment of HB2064 and SB2467 to clean it up to only address the unconstitutional statutes.
   
   
3. Share this information with family, friends and other Second Amendment supporters to encourage them to contact their legislators. 
   
   
4. Also, encourage them to subscribe directly to the TFA's free email system so that they will directly receive future communications in their email accounts.