MAKE SPECIAL SESSION MEANINGFUL
No bills about abortion, transgenders, library books and drag shows will be on the agenda. No budget will need approval. And, importantly, no election will take place for another year.
A special session of the Tennessee General Assembly in late August should be the perfect time for legislators — without some of the usual distractions — to discuss strengthening public safety and preserving constitutional rights.
Gov. Bill Lee called the session Monday, and one could imagine the various sides scrambling for their corners.
Some Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the state legislature, are worried if they vote to tighten any restrictions on firearms they’ll have someone on their right mount a primary challenge against them next year. Some are afraid they won’t get campaign donations from gun organizations for their next election. And some think any kind of vote that might be construed as being “anti-gun” will make them look weak.
Some Democrats are thinking about proposing all the gun control measures they ever wanted to see passed. Some are thinking they’ll be in a no-lose situation after the session — they’ll get the gun restrictions they want or they’ll look valiant in trying. And some are hoping the session will make Republicans look weak in the hope they might somehow pick off a few seats next year.
We hope all lawmakers get over themselves between now and Aug. 21, when the special session is supposed to begin.
“There is broad agreement,” Lee said in a statement Monday, “that action is needed.”
We would agree but not action for the sake of action alone. That’s empty and will solve little.
We would hope every legislator will take the time between now and August to examine their consciences about guns and carefully consider what could be done — with Lee’s mandate to “preserve Second Amendment rights” — and to meet with their constituents in a town hall format to hear what they have to say.
Yes, town halls have the potential to become shouting matches, to bring out gun rights supporters and gun opponents on the fringe, and to have citizens bring up their concerns about a million other matters. But, after all, aren’t legislators supposed to be representatives of the people?
Such meetings might give members of the House and Senate an idea of whether a recent Vanderbilt University poll strongly in support of gun restrictions was accurate or was skewed to lean toward the opinions of those who sponsored it.
The poll, after all, showed 82% of respondents in favor of Lee’s executive order to strengthen background checks, 72% in favor of the governor’s call for order-of-protection legislation similar to a red-flag law and nearly 67% supporting a law requiring gun owners to store their firearms securely.
What’s surprising, if the poll is to be believed, is that 72% of individuals who describe themselves as MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) Republicans support the governor’s background check executive order, 81% of non-MAGA Republicans do, as well as 91% of Democrats and 78% of independents.
Even if you’re wary of the accuracy of polls, as we are, and you factor out a percentage of bias (5%?, 10%?), you still have a large majority of Tennesseans — 51.6% of whom are gun owners, according to CBS News — who want background checks strengthened.
Gun owners and non-gun owners in the state should understand we are not going to be Illinois or New York after the special session. No laws are going to be passed which force firearm owners to obtain a purchase permit from their local police department (Massachusetts), which restrict weapons like large-capacity magazines and assault weapons (Illinois) or which require the relinquishing of firearms if someone is convicted of firearm-prohibiting crimes (California).
But Tennesseans should expect that their elected representatives can sit in a special legislative session, put aside petty partisan disputes of the just-completed session, and hammer out a set of laws or amendments to laws that will make their constituents safer when it comes to guns.
The 24th anniversary has just passed of the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, that killed 15 and wounded 21. It was an event that shocked the world because of the mass killing. It was something that happened so rarely, even in our gun-loving country. In 2023, though, mass shootings seemingly occur weekly. Can we continue to be blind to this increase?
Lee has asked state residents to comment online about what they’d like to see happen at the special session at bit.lyTennSpeaks. We’re sure he wants to hear from gun supporters and gun opponents and about any ideas that might not have been considered. We hope legislators will have that same experience with town halls if they’re courageous enough to call them.
Ultimately, we hope members of the General Assembly will meet in August not to pass something just to say they did but because they were able to agree on measures that would keep Tennessee safer going forward.