This past weekend Governor Bill Lee asserted it was “a disservice to parents and teachers” when Chief Drake in the Metropolitan Police Force in Nashville announced that Metro was not applying for $5.25 million in state funding for “School Resource Officers” (“SROs”). According to the news report, Metro Nashville made that decision “saying the agency does not have capacity to staff Metro Nashville’s 70 public elementary schools.”
After the Covenant School murders in March 2023, Governor Lee has been out front not only attacking the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment with his “Red Flag” demands, but he also ushered the state into allocating $230 million for school safety enhancements including placing armed officers in schools. Governor’s press release.
But Governor Lee’s administration is knowingly and intentionally placing children who attend and the families that use daycare facilities, the individuals that work at those facilities and the institutions that run those facilities at risk because his administration is enforcing an unconstitutional state regulation that prohibits the individuals and those facilities that provide child care from having any firearms on the property. Full Story.
The unfortunate part is that while the Legislature has had years – approximately 13 of which were under complete control by Republicans – to remove all infringements on the rights of self-defense and third party defense as protected by the Second Amendment, this Governor, his predecessors and the Legislature still are putting the lives of Tennesseans at risk by disregarding intentionally the phrase “shall not be infringed”.
If you want to help fight back, join TFA and consider making voluntary member donations to help fund this kind of litigation. If you are already a member, consider making voluntary member donations. This is not a problem “somewhere else” – it is happening in Tennessee.
John Harris
Executive Director
johnharris@tennesseefirearms.com
