More Bills Filed in TN

By | January 23, 2013

The first wave I listed here

Here is the second wave:

HB 0035 by *Parkinson: As introduced, increases the punishment for a defendant convicted of a crime of violence with a deadly weapon, to receive no less than two times the original sentence imposed upon the defendant.

HB 0036 by *Parkinson: As introduced, declares that any person convicted for the unlawful sale, gift or loan of a firearm to a minor or intoxicated person be punished as criminally responsible for any resulting crime; requires the person serve all the time sentenced without parole.

I’m going to break here and comment on those two. I think Parkinson (D-Memphis) is on track to become my second-favorite Democrat in the TN House. Hardaway is my favorite because of the epic crazy involved in his anti-gun antics. These two bills have no companion bill in the Senate, so they’re not going anywhere (yet). HB0035 is pretty much meaningless since the courts don’t impose any kind of sentence today that acts as a deterrent. HB0036 covers something that is already illegal, but creates a situation where the person who provided the firearm to the kid that robbed a convenience store serves a whole lot more time than the person that actually committed the crime.

These have little chance of becoming law. My only objection to them is that they make something already illegal a little bit illegaler.

SB 0076 by *Campfield:As introduced, limits to 15 the number of handgun carry permit records that can be reproduced in a single day; authorizes receipt of compilation of handgun carry permit records if such compilation will not be published.

SB 0077 by *Campfield: As introduced, allows certain persons employed by a local education agency as a faculty or staff member at a K-12 school to possess and carry a firearm.

Those are Stacey Campfield’s, with no companion in the House. The first one appears to be a compromise version of the bill he’s carried every year to seal Handgun Carry Permit records in order to stop The Commercial Appeal from publishing the database. Again.

The second bill I swear will be called “Guns for Kindergartners” bill by the press, but if you read the text it’s very limiting. The only folks that would be able to carry at schools would be people who work full-time at the school. They would also have to have a carry permit, AND undergo the same training that School Resource Officers go through (40 hours initial, 16 hours annual) AND the school would have to not have a School Resource Officer assigned to it.

Even after all that, the school system can still elect to prohibit carry. However:

Any local education agency that prohibits persons from
possessing and carrying a handgun pursuant to subdivision (f)(2)(A) shall be civilly liable for any damages, personal injury or death that results from a criminal act by any person not authorized to be in the school in which the prohibition was in effect.

That’s something I’ve proposed (even to Campfield, personally) for posted properties. This is a step in the right direction, even if the rest of the bill is kinda crappy.

But here is the big one:

HB 0042 by *Carr J: As introduced, prohibits the enforcement and prosecution of certain federal law implemented or executed on or after January 1, 2013, concerning certain firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition.

Read the text of that bill. It has a companion bill in the Senate, so there is some support in the upper chamber. When the summary says “prohibits” it doesn’t mean “provides no funding.” (That’s in HB 0010) It means “makes it a crime for ATF, FBI, DEA, DOJ to try to arrest a Tennessean for violations of a gun control statute.” That’s a pretty big deal. Unlike the Tennessee Firearms Freedom act, this one has teeth. It also requires the state to defend any citizen charged by the Feds.

This one has been all over talk radio. I don’t think it will pass, nor do I think Haslam would sign it, but I’ve been known to be wrong.

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