Committee started hearing the bill at about 12:05.
Mike Stewart (D-Nashville) apparently doesn’t understand there’s no such thing as a “public business.” He kept going on and on about “but I privately purchased this property. Why would I be affected by this?”
Apparently the bill only applies to the criminal penalties under TCA 39-17-1359. It does NOT protect a carry permit holder from being fired. This is different from the “Employee Safe Commute” bill that we fought for last year, which would have protected the employees from being fired.
Sherry Jones (D-Nashville) was apparently asleep, and asked the same question that was just covered for 10 minutes.
Bill passes out of committee. Goes to Calendar and Rules Committee next week.
Last year there were TWO bills, the safe commute bill and a companion non-discrimination bill. The latter was the bill that would have kept employers from firing gun owners for being gun owners. That bill has not been offered this year, to my knowledge.
Last year we could have passed a watered down version of last year’s bill. We could have been fighting to make last year’s bill better rather than having to fight for an even weaker bill. We should have learned our lesson. Let’s pass the bill and then make it better. It took a century for the progs to infringe on our rights, we will have to restore them by increment.