With Friends Like This…

By | March 21, 2019

For those that don’t know, when it comes to pro-gun rights groups in the state of Tennessee, you pretty much have the Tennessee Firearms Association and… the Tennessee Firearms Association.

Recently, John Harris, the man who has lead the TFA for a long, long time posted this:

Just in case you’ve somehow stumbled on to this blog without knowing what the McDonald v Chicago case was about, welcome! and I hope I manage to enlighten and entertain! The case dealt with whether or not it was constitutional for the city of Chicago to straight up ban the ownership (not just carry of) handguns in its city limits.

The short of it is that the court decided that the 14th amendment means that the states are under the same constitutional restrictions that the Federal government is, and that includes the 2nd amendment.

Being a little alarmed that the head of my states “only no-compromise gun organization” would refer to “the wrongly decided SCOTUS McDonald decision,” I ask him for clarification. This was his answer:

In short, it is his belief that the 14th amendment’s due process clause does not mean that the constitution applies to the states as well as federal government. Never mind that, besides a handful of court cases shortly after the amendment was passed, the courts has regularly held it to mean just that.

Which means that, yes, the head of my local state level pro-gun rights org does not believe that the 2nd amendment applies to state level legislation. I’m guessing, by the same token, he doesn’t believe that state or city governments are restricted by any of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights… or the rest of the constitution, for that matter. Sorry, beyond “don’t own slaves.”

So… in case you were wondering, I know that my friend Weer’d Beard is a fan of tell you to join multiple national level gun rights groups *and especially* your state level ones, but… I’m not going to be opening my check book for the TFA anytime soon.

By the way, Mr Harris’ day job? He’s a lawyer.

5 thoughts on “With Friends Like This…

  1. Chris Byrne

    He’s one of those assholes who believe the confederacy was actually about states rights… and the states are supposed to be their own countries in a confederation etc…

    They’re wrong of course… but they’re absolutely certain.

    Reply
  2. DOD

    Mr. Harris sounds like a die hard states rights Confederate. He must wonder why cops
    read Miranda rights to those arrested. Recently, SCOTUS applied the excessive fines
    clause to state “civil forfeiture” thievery by police, reaffirming the 14th as a conduit
    of Constitutional rights to state actions.
    DOD

    Reply
  3. SteveTN

    John Harris is THE attorney you want in case you have to exercise your 2nd Amend right for self defense. You may disagree on the stuff in the article, but Harris is the one you call if you need the best defense attorney.

    Reply
  4. Tom Lindsay

    For once, I read something about reciprocity that I agree with. If we give Congress authority over regulating carry permits, then one day you can guarantee they will shut them all down.

    Please re read the 10th Amendment if you don’t understand.

    If we want true interstate reciprocity, the oute is to make light of the fact that carry permits, as a group, were instituted to keep guns out of the hands of freed slaves. Make this a loud case.

    Reply

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