Gun trainers see potentially fatal flaw in Lee’s proposal
When Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced his proposed legislation to strip away permit requirements for those who wanted to carry a gun in public, it was hailed by some lawmakers as a victory for Second Amendment rights.
But some of the staunchest Second Amendment supporters — those who make a living educating gun owners on proper firearm safety and training — are conflicted.
“I’m torn, I really am,” said Greg Richardson, a salesman and gunsmith who deals and repairs antique firearms at Classic Arms in Cordova.
On the one hand, Richardson said, any law that bolsters Second Amendment rights for citizens is something that he’s inclined to support.
But Richardson is passionate about safety and education as key components to owning a gun. And the idea of striking down an educational requirement for anybody wanting to carry a firearm gives him pause.
“When you purchase a firearm, and you make that decision to carry a fire
arm, it should be a lifestyle change,” Richardson said. “You’re looking at not only you being safe with handling a firearm, but if you have a family, you have to make sure they understand about the firearm and the function of it.”
Beyond his hesitation to support striking an educational requirement for gun owners, Richardson also expresses concern about what striking the permit requirement means for gun instructors who make their living through firearms training and education.
At Top Gun Memphis, Will Dogan, who oversees training, said Lee’s initiative will endanger Tennesseans by making the educational component of gun ownership optional.
“If you want to endanger yourself in your own home, well that’s your right,” Dogan said. “But now, you’re going to allow people to endanger the public, and my wife, and my children. And that’s a problem.”
Top Gun’s sales manager James York illustrates why Lee’s initiative troubles him.
At Top Gun, he said, it’s clear that there will always be gun owners who use their facilities for shooting, but it’s not as clear what happens to the livelihoods of their employees who train new gun owners.
York, who has a couple of decades of gun ownership under his belt, said in spite of his experience, he trains and practices weekly.
“You can never, ever have enough knowledge when it comes to firearms,” York said. “It’s not just that there are people who make their living with firearm training, it’s that you’re leaving it up to them [new gun owners] whether or not they are going to get training and do what they need to do.”
In that respect, York said he has already seen troubling effects of lowering the training threshold for gun owners seeking a permit.
In 2019, Tennessee lawmakers approved legislation that made it easier for gun owners to obtain a concealed carry permit. Instead of a mandatory class that requires in-person training, the state introduced an online course for concealed carry-only permits.
The online training course, and the associated permit, is a quicker, less expensive option — $65 and a 90-minute online course all but guarantees a concealed carry permit.
That law went into effect on Jan. 1, and York said he’s already noticed a general drop in the knowledge and training of some gun owners.
“Don’t get me wrong,” York said, “I’m 100 percent for the Second Amendment, but if people are going to take the time to carry a weapon, they need to take the time to educate themselves. We’ve got to think this through.”
York, Richardson and Dogan all expressed concern about children and families who are endangered when gun owners are not prioritizing safety and education. And there’s evidence to back their concerns.
Dr. Regan Williams, director of trauma medicine at Lebonheur Children’s Hospital, is one of the medical professionals in Memphis devoted to researching firearm incidents among children in Tennessee.
Williams and the trauma staff of Lebonheur have been carefully tabulating data from children wheeled into emergency rooms across the state with firearms injuries.
That data, which includes research compiled by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, showed an alarming increase — 29% since 2016 — in children accidentally injured and killed by firearms.
By 2019, gun injuries moved up to the No. 1 external cause of death among children under 18 in Tennessee.
Williams’ research pointed to an even split between accidental and intentional gun injuries in children.
In cases of accidental shootings, about 70% of those were incidents of family members or friends shooting a child.
“Which, to me, that means it’s 100 percent about gun storage,” Williams said.
The ‘illusion of training’
At least one gun expert in Memphis sees Lee’s proposal for so-called constitutional carry as an opportunity to further the conversation around firearm education.
Johnathan Cross makes a living by teaching tactical firearm training for civilians, church congregations, and other organizations through his business, Dauntless Tactical Training.
Cross believes that by dropping the permit process entirely, gun owners will no longer operate under what Cross calls “an illusion” of believing they have sufficient education to own and use a firearm.
“The current system only teaches the basics of firearm safety, and it teaches you the laws around firearms, it does not teach you how to effectively use a firearm,” Cross said.
Like Richardson, York and Dogan, Cross is a devoted Second Amendment supporter and a big believer in gun education.
But where Cross differs is his belief that the permit system already in place is woefully insufficient. Take that system away, Cross says, and gun owners will have to confront the reality that they have no education when it comes to their firearm.
“In the current system, you have eight hours of instruction that teaches you a law, and basic firearms safety,” Cross said. “But the shooting qualification is so simple, that anyone could pass it.”
Cross also sees Lee’s proposal as a way to restart an urgently needed conversation about children and gun access.
He points out that up until the mid-1980s, firearm education and safety were ingrained in the public school system through rifle teams, hunting clubs, and Junior ROTC.
The notion of teaching firearm safety in schools isn’t a new idea, Cross said, but it’s been driven out by widespread indoctrination of the idea that no good will come from firearm ownership.
“In a society where we have demonized firearms at almost every level, we’re seeing an uptick in young people who have tragic accidents because they don’t know about safety,” Cross said.
From his view, the lack of education disproportionately affects African American children in Memphis.
“I’m going to be blunt. There are a lot of white parents that train their children about gun safety, but in the black community, we don’t see that as much,” Cross said.
For Cross, reinstating gun culture in public schools is a way to instill desperately needed safety training among Memphis’ African American youth. And he’s counting on professional firearms instructors to take up this task.
“It’s the responsibility of firearms trainers to push and promote firearms education all the time,” Cross said. “This change in the permit process isn’t going to change the level of access, and we cannot mandate that people seek permission for something that is a right.”