Early voting starts July 15, 2022, for the August 2022 primaries in Tennessee. These primaries will focus attention on the party primaries and will select the candidates for each party for the November elections for Governor, state legislators, federal legislators, and state judges.
For weeks now we have been receiving mailers, social media ads, radio ads and television ads promoting or opposing these races on a variety of issues. But, these materials often are useless in discerning differences between and among candidates.
Why?
Well, let’s focus on those running in the Republican primary.
Practically every candidate running will claim that they are the “conservative” candidate. But all of them say that. Not a one puts in their ads that they are RINOs, that they are primarily the puppets of the “chamber of commerce” or that they are more loyal to the “Establishment” than they are to the constitution. So, the self-serving claim of being a conservative must be disregarded because even candidates who have public records of voting in Democrat primaries and giving contributions to known liberal Democrats are claiming that they are “now” a true conservative.
So, we need to look at specifics.
All Republican candidates will claim that they are for “lower taxes” and “smaller government”. For those with no prior voting records, its hard to tell. But we do have voting records for those who are incumbents or who have held office in the past. Take for example those who have been in the governor’s office or the state legislature since the 2010 elections. When the Democrats had control prior to the 2010 election, the state’s budget was approximately $28 billion. Budgets are based on one thing – government revenue which is primarily in the form of taxes and fees on citizens. If all these incumbents, like Bill Lee, Beth Harwell and Jack Johnson are claiming that they have “cut taxes”, how is it that Tennessee’s budget trend line from 2010 to 2022-23 is almost double? How is it a cut in taxes to raise the state’s budget from $28 billion to over $53 billion in just the last 12 or so years? Sure, there may be a half-truth that some specific tax here to there was cut of eliminate but in the aggregate the tax burden on citizens has in fact almost doubled in just a little over a decade. So, we can’t rely on statements from those who have been in office and who claim to have cut taxes. Cutting some minor taxes but raising others far more (like the gas tax) is not a cut – unless you are using government “common core” accounting.
Ok, so what about the Second Amendment? Well, its true that practically all candidates for Republican primaries and even some Democrats will claim to be “strong on the Second Amendment”. After all, you can see Beth Harwell walking down some road while other people are carrying shotguns right? Further, when it comes to the incumbents, like Senator Jack Johnson who was the Senate Sponsor of Bill Lee’s “constitutional carry” legislation in 2021 and 2022, many of them will claim this year that they voted for or supported constitutional carry in Tennessee. Really?
They may call Bill Lee’s 2021 law “constitutional carry” but there is no more truth to that than the progressives calling a man a woman just because the man thinks he is or claims to be a woman.
Real constitutional carry is a situation where it is not a crime in the state for an individual (who is otherwise lawfully able to purchase or possess the firearm) to carry a firearm for any lawful purpose including self defense. Tennessee does not have that and with minor exceptions it never has had that kind of law. Several other states do, but not Tennessee.
What Bill Lee wanted and what the Legislature did was to pass a statutory defense to a criminal charge under TCA 39-17-1307(a)(1) for carrying a firearm with the intent to go armed. That law applies everywhere in Tennessee at all times. What Tennessee has had and still has is several statutory defenses to carrying a firearm with the intent to go armed. A statutory defense means that you can be stopped by an officer, you can be detained, you can be charged or arrested, and you can be tried for violating the law “carrying a firearm with the intent to go armed”. If those things happen, then Tennessee’s legislature has created a series of statutes that provide you, the citizen, with statutory defenses to that crime but it is your burden to raise those defenses and, if necessary, prove them at least initially to the officer, the district attorney and/or a jury.
What are these statutory defenses? Most of them are found in TCA 39-17-1307 and 39-17-1308. Some are called “exceptions” and some are called “defenses” but both of those are issues that the accused bears the burden of demonstrating initially – it is not treated as a “right”. Some examples are from TCA 39-17-1308:
(a) It is a defense to the application of § 39-17-1307 if the possession or carrying was:
(1) Of an unloaded rifle, shotgun or handgun not concealed on or about the person and the ammunition for the weapon was not in the immediate vicinity of the person or weapon;
(2) By a person authorized to possess or carry a firearm pursuant to § 39-17-1315, § 39-17-1351, or § 39-17-1366;
(3) At the person’s:
(A) Place of residence;
(B) Place of business; or
(C) Premises;
(4) Incident to lawful hunting, trapping, fishing, camping, sport shooting or other lawful activity;
(5) By a person possessing a rifle or shotgun while engaged in the lawful protection of livestock from predatory animals;
***
Did you notice that! You could be charged with a crime of carrying a firearm with intent to go armed and it would be your burden to PROVE that you were doing so at your own “residence” or “premises”? Were you aware that Tennessee’s Legislature takes the position that you do not even have rights protected by the 2nd Amendment in your own home?
What Bill Lee’s 2021 law did was nothing more than to add another statutory defense. Its a defense that has at least 7 qualifications. It does not apply to everyone who can legally purchase or possess a handgun (or even a firearm). It does not serve as a defense if you are caught carrying the gun without a permit in a public park, on a greenway or in other public recreational areas.
The fact cannot be genuinely disputed that the 2021 law is nothing more than yet another qualified defense to a criminal charge. It is not “constitutional carry”. However, incumbent candidates like the senate sponsor Jack Johnson will tell you that is what it is as he proudly claims on his campaign website (as of 7-15-2022) that he “Sponsored and passed Tennessee’s Constitutional Carry law, expanding gun rights for Tennesseans”. Its just not true.
But there were bills pending with sponsors and supporters in the Tennessee Legislative over the last few years which would have enacted REAL Constitutional Carry. Consider HB0018/SB0318 by Sen. Hensley and Rep. Griffey and HB1388/SB1391 by Sen. Bowling and Rep. Todd. These bills would have both deleted the single sentence that makes it a crime to carry a firearm with the intent to go armed. But most legislators did not support these bills.
But, you can also look beyond the failure of the Legislature to pass constitutional carry. They have also failed to repeal gun free zones. They failed to pass “criminal immunity” (related to matters such as Kyle Rittenhouse) to protect self-defense victims from progressive, anti-gun district attorneys. They have failed to decriminalize the “posting” statute. They have failed simply the permitting system and to have only one class of permit. They have failed to restrict the ability of local governments to ban gunshows at public venues (like the Nashville Fairgrounds).
So, when you have an incumbent governor or legislator in Tennessee tell you that they voted to “pass constitutional carry” or that they are strong on 2nd Amendment issues, don’t just accept that assertion because it may not be true. It might be a half-truth, but it may not be “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.
Why is the 2nd Amendment issue important for a primary race? Frankly, the 2nd Amendment presents a great litmus test to expose those, particularly incumbents, who may need to be replaced. If a legislator or governor cannot, after taking the oath to uphold the constitution, simply can not “stomach” enacting REAL constitutional carry, then are they really going to be “conservative” on other issues like 10th Amendment, 7th Amendment, 5th Amendment, 4th Amendment, 1st Amendment or any other constitutionally protected right? The answer is probably no. The answer probably leads ultimately to the conclusion that they are not really a conservative but perhaps they are merely “identifying” as one.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.