Sen. Janice Bowling supports TFA’s lawsuit against City of Memphis regarding firearms ordinances

Senator Bowling sponsored legislation in 2024 in the Tennessee Legislature which further clarified that the State of Tennessee preempted all local regulation of firearms, in any manner. The 2024 legislation specifically addressed the issue of “Red Flag” laws which are also commonly referred to as “extreme risk protection orders.” The 2024 law, which is enacted as Public Chapter 1062 (2024), states, in relevant part, that “the general assembly preempts the entire field of legislation regarding extreme risk protection orders to the exclusion of all county, city, town, municipality, or metropolitan government law, ordinances, resolutions, enactments, or regulation.”

The City of Memphis blatantly disregarded Tennessee’s preemption statutes when it submitted to voters the enactment of an ordinance which contained three provisions regarding the local regulation of firearms. One of those provisions specifically addressed “Red Flag” laws.

If you are interested in helping fight these clearly illegal and unconstitutional acts by the City of Memphis, and it’s leadership, you can do so by:

• joining TFA as a member (or renewing your membership) if you are not already a member. This would be particularly important if you live in or travel to Memphis and you would want to be considered as a representative plaintiff.
• if you are already a member of TFA, you can support this effort with a financial contribution that would help fund the litigation efforts.
• You can also make a tax deductible donation to the Tennessee Firearms Foundation (a 501c3 charity) which has increasingly engaged in or supported public interest litigation on matters such as this.