In 2023, citizens across Tennessee who are interested in protecting our individual civil rights from unconstitutional government infringements moved forward with a load voice in the Red Flag Down campaign by the Tennessee Firearms Association to defeat an attempt by Governor Lee and some Republican legislators to push a “red flag” or “mental health order of protection” in Tennessee. Indeed, noted conservatives including Tennessee’s John Rich went national to speak against this effort.
Ultimately, the effort of some government officials to enact these unconstitutional gun grabs in the Governor’s special session failed at least as part of the special session.
However, as we knew then, that was just a single battle in a war – a war by state officials, law enforcement, and local officials that evidences a relentless agenda to infringe that which is declared to be uninfringeable. It is a war to destroy the rights protected by the Second Amendment from any government infringement by those public officials who call for such deprivations by using terms like “public safety”, “reasonable”, “necessity” or simply denying that the Second Amendment has any application at all to the proposed infringement.
We saw evidence of this attack on our rights recently with the filing by Rep. Ryan Williams (R.) of bills specifically designed and written to attack the rights of a certain population age bracket on the apparent theory that even as adults they were not “full” adults until after age 25. Ultimately, those bills clearly appear to be part of the overall call by Governor Bill Lee for the Legislature to deny and impair the rights protected by the Second Amendment to certain individuals based on “public safety.”
But, the United States Supreme Court has made clear in its June 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, No. 20-843, that the “public safety” argument is unconstitutional. In the South, some would say that arguments like that are “lies from the pit of Hell.” Indeed, the Supreme Court in Bruen specifically held that the “means-end” doctrine, that is the “public safety” argument, is not a basis on which a government can circumvent the Second Amendment’s shall not be infringed mandate. The Court clearly stated:
In keeping with Heller, we hold that when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command.”
Bruen, p. 8.
This part of the Bruen holding has gone completely if not intentionally ignored by Bill Lee and many in the Tennessee Legislature. They, as public officials, continue to violate their oaths of office by proposing such “public safety” agendas to attack the Second Amendment without giving any effort to demonstrating that the proposed legislation is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition” of firearms regulation – as of 1791. Such omission of any effort to comply with Bruen evidences their collective rejection of the Supreme Court’s decision. Indeed, we understand from more than one source that one or more members of Republican legislative leadership has actually asserted that Bruen is completely inapplicable to Tennessee law or the discretion of the legislature to regulate firearms in Tennessee!
So, as we move toward January it is critical to remember that our civil rights are under attack by state and local government (not to mention the federal government). But, the “state” cannot act autonomously, it acts through those individuals who are either elected or appointed as state officials. It is those officials, officials who proposed gun control measures in clear violation of Bruen or with complete disregard of what the Supreme Court said in Bruen who are the real and present dangers to your rights as Tennesseans and Americans.
Red Flag Down is not a battle cry for 2023 that applied only to Bill Lee’s proposed gun control agenda. It is a mandate now for a forward looking Red Flag Watch to guard our rights against government tyranny and individual tyrants. It is now aligned with the duty of citizens’ to watch as literal and figurative “sentries” standing guard over our rights to protect and defend them against the abuses of individuals who hold government office but who ignore their constitutional oaths.
Certainly, we must celebrate the victory of Red Flag Down over the Governor and his special session in 2023. However, we must look forward realizing that those elected officials who proposed and pushed forward with gun control agendas in 2023, even if unsuccessful then, are still in office today. Like the militia sentries of the Revolutionary War, we must be prepared to function sentries today for the continuation of the war by state officials to infringe our rights that is here now (Rep. Williams’ bills) and certain to expand in 2024 and we must be prepared to work with and support the handful of legislators who have proven their loyalty to the constitutional oaths to defeat any present or future assaults on those rights.
John Harris | Executive Director Tennessee Firearms Association
Joining and supporting TFA is an investment in the fight to restore our constitutional rights and to fight against politicians who are willing to sell their votes and your rights to whichever business interest gives them the most money!