TFA (AKA Tennessee Firearms Association) a little known outside the Nashville “Beltway” is in fact responsible for Tennessee having the current Handgun Carry Permit.

From a time when the NRA was still engaged in fighting the Establishment for the People’s Second Amendment rights, they realized the importance of working with state and local advocacy groups, to the point they recognized the TFA and its Executive Director for their efforts.

Republicans were a minority in those days, every Second Amendment restorative piece of legislation was sponsored by Democrats, and while most Republicans would vote for those measure on the floor, they did not have the power to carry and get bills over the top, they were struggling to gain strength and build their soon to be Supermajority. The Republicans welcomed the effectiveness (some call it “Toxicity” today) in his entreaty to move the needle in favor of the Republicans:

Fast forward to now, the Republicans hold a Supermajority and all the promises made regarding Second Amendment restoration are void, they didn‘t mean it.

Let me stop here and pose that where we SHOULD be is; if you can possess a firearm, any firearm, you should as Civil Right, be able to carry it for all lawful purposes…any bill that promotes this is going nowhere in the legislature as John Harris is too toxic, his snarky memes upset the tender sensibilities of the Public Figures who toss their hats in the ring and should be broad shouldered enough to take criticism...see First Amendment, however, if they don’t respect the Second, why would we expect them to respect the Frist?

Any legislator that in private or public conversation says “If TFA proposes it, or if a bill has their fingerprints on it, it is going nowhere!” is an Oath-breaker. They swear or affirm to “vote without favor, affection, partiality or prejudice, “So Help them God” before proceeding to business, and, they swear or affirm that they “will not propose or assent to any bill, vote or resolution, which shall appear to me injurious to the people, or consent to any act or thing, whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights and privileges, as declared by the Constitution of this State”.

The pusillanimous, weak legislators allow Leadership to control their actions, else we would be like thirty nine (39) other states and be allowed to bear long guns for all lawful purposes, but noooo, the Republican Supermajority stands firm (along with the unelected bureaucrats in the various Law Enforcement Departments) to keep on our book of infringements, a statute that denies their use for self-defense or defense of others.

In fact, it is a crime for any person to bear a firearm with the “intent to go armed”, TCA 39-17-1307 (a).

I kept a rope on John Harris for a decade, after making an agreement with Judd Matheny (then Speaker Pro Temp. of the House) to mute his sarcasm and vitriol at being lied to and seeing our Second Amendment rights swept into the dust bin by the Legislature. They told me “if you can just keep John quiet, you will get what you want, most here respect and like you…”, I did that very thing for a long time, it was BS and I have stopped trying to control John’s writings, meme making, or, his approach in any way.

Speaker Sexton, Lt. Governor Randy McNally, caucus Leaders William Lamberth and Jack Johnson could completely restore our Second Amendment right, they have the money and the power to do so if they would. All they have to do to shut John (and now me) up is the correct, constitutional thing; it ain’t hard, if you need help knowing what to do and how to vote, give me a jingle, you know where I am.