The tradition of Tennesseans to keep and bear arms for “lawful purposes” preexists the founding of this state and the ratification of our Constitution and Declaration of Rights. This right comes from God, not from Government!
“Nolichucky Jack” first governor of Tennessee, known to many as John Sevier, mortgaged his farm and property in 1780 to finance the armed excursion by an all-volunteer militia “over the mountains” to hunt down and eliminate “Bull Dog” Ferguson and his Loyalist troops who had intended to, if the Patriots did not “desist from their opposition to British arms”, “march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.” Thomas Jefferson noted that this action was “[t]he turn of the tide of success” for America in the War for Independence. They carried their personal firearms, the “Assault Rifle” of the day to oppose tyranny, of their own volition, at their own costs, not conscripted by any government, nor paid to do so.
In every contest in arms regarding the Liberty of the fledgling nation, Tennesseans showed time and again their mettle by heeding the call to battle and bringing with them the weapons most useful in war, that they kept at their homes. From the call to join Jackson at Horseshoe Bend to fight the Red Sticks (Creek Indians in Alabama), the field of Chalmette (Battle of New Orleans against the British in 1814) to the Spanish American War when 2,500 volunteers were called for and 30,000 showed up, the Sons of this earth we know today as Tennessee have always borne their personally owned weapons of war to serve in the People’s Militia when it is necessary to do so.
Early on, our Founders understood what government can (and will) do to a People who are not vigilant and demanding of their rights. These men and women who wagered their lives, fortunes and sacred honor against tyranny understood the creeping authoritarianism that is government and bade us keep them at arm’s length. Patrick Henry warned us “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”
Later, Daniel Webster advised “Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
The Declaration of Rights enumerated in the 1796 Constitution of Tennessee etched thus on the walls of our state in Article 11, Section 26, “That the free men of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defence.”
How poorly has the Government of Tennessee in the succeeding years held to the charge of Article 10th Section 4th in that document that says “The declaration of rights hereto annexed is declared to be a part of the constitution of this State, and shall never be violated on any pretence whatever. And to guard against transgressions of the high powers which we have delegated, we declare that everything in the bill of rights contained, and every other right not hereby delegated, is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate.”
Five short years later the General assembly made it a crime to carry a pistol or specific types of bladed weapons for self-defense, again, in 1821 and in 1870 laws were passed by the General Assembly to deny the right to arms of Tennesseans.
In the Supreme Court of Tennessee in the case Andrews v. State, Justice Nelson J. Said in his concurrence “To “regulate” does not mean to destroy, but “to adjust by rule,” “to put in good order,” to produce uniformity of motion or of action; and, under this provision, there can be no question that, while the Legislature has NO power to prohibit the wearing of arms, it has the right to declare that, if worn upon the person, they shall be worn in a public manner. The Act of 1870, instead of regulating, prohibits the wearing of arms, and is, therefore, in my opinion, unconstitutional and void.”
The plurality opinion of the court in that case said “The right to keep arms, necessarily involves the right to purchase them, to keep them in a state of efficiency for use, and to purchase and provide ammunition suitable for such arms, and to keep them in repair. And clearly for this purpose, a man would have the right to carry them to and from his home, and no one could claim that the Legislature had the right to punish him for it, without violating this clause of the Constitution.”…
“Such, then, as are found to make up the usual arms of the citizen of the country, and the use of which will properly train and render him efficient in defense of his own liberties, as well as of the State. Under this head, with a knowledge of the habits of our people, and of the arms in the use of which a soldier should be trained, we would hold, that the rifle of all descriptions, the shot gun, the musket, and repeater, are such arms; and that under the Constitution the right to keep such arms, can not be infringed or forbidden by the Legislature.”And yet we sit today, with hordes flooding across our southern border, hundreds of thousands of illegal youthful men, of military age occupying our nation with no government stopping them. We have recently seen what can occur when a force desirous of larceny and murder is left unchecked. In response our General Assembly in Tennessee has, like Israel, made it a crime for the average law-abiding citizen of Tennessee to carry arms that our state and federal Supreme Courts have said time and again it IS our natural right to do. Israel is now handing out AR 15s and ammunition to its people, but that appears to be closing the gate after the cows are long gone.
We must reverse the situation where it is a crime to carry a loaded firearm for a free People. Our Tennessee statute 39-17-1307 (a) (1) says in fact it is just that.
C. Richard Archie
West TN Director and Board Member
Tennessee Firearms Association
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