NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — After the deadly shooting at Antioch High School, Democratic lawmakers are pushing for legislation to hold irresponsible gun owners who “recklessly” store their firearms accountable, while one Republican has proposed stripping lawmakers’ power to pass certain gun regulation laws from Tennessee’s Constitution to reaffirm the citizens’ right to bear arms.
The proposals couldn’t be more opposite and could offer a glimpse of what’s to come this legislative session.
“We are sort of living in the definition of insanity,” Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) said. “We keep having this happen again and again, and it’s a public health emergency at this point, and we refuse to look at the real problem which is people have access to guns.”
After the Antioch school shooting, Campbell and Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) filed companion bills to create a Class A misdemeanor for “recklessly storing a firearm in a manner that a person knows or reasonably should know will allow a child younger than 18 years of age to access the firearm and the child brings the firearm to a school,” according to the bill.
In addition, Campbell filed legislation to allow a person to voluntarily put their name on a no-sell gun list and to classify it as reckless endangerment when someone fails to unload, safely store, or lock a firearm, allowing a child under 13 to access it and hurt or kill themselves or another. The measure is known as “MaKayla’s Law,” named after 8-year-old MaKayla Dyer, who was shot and killed in 2015 by an 11-year-old boy who used his father’s unsecured gun after she told him he couldn’t play with her puppy.
“The reason that I am running bills like this this year is because I do believe that everybody across the board in the legislature believes that accountability and responsibility is important,” Campbell said.
While that may be true, most Republicans have been clear about where they stand on the issue of gun legislation.
“As far as Tennessee doing something to limit guns, we’re not going to do that. We believe in the Second Amendment and we believe that our Constitution was written correctly. We’re not going to take guns from people,” Rep. Jeremy Faison, House Republican Caucus Chair told News 2 in January 2024.
This session, Republican Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin) is doubling down and sponsoring a proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution to remove the line that gives legislators the power to regulate guns through law to prevent crime and clarify citizens’ right to bear arms.
The proposal would delete the phrase, “That the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime,” from the constitution, and replace it with, “That the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms.”
Conservative legislators have previously told News 2 not only do gun control laws violate the Second Amendment, but they wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“I think we can’t concentrate on an object for someone. Someone has to pull the trigger, someone has to use a knife, someone has to use their car in a way that can hurt someone, so it’s not just about a single object of what we need to do,” Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) said in August 2023.
Campbell is hopeful but not confident Republican lawmakers will consider supporting gun legislation, including ones that hold irresponsible gun owners accountable this session, following the deadly Antioch High School shooting.
“I know that in their hearts a lot of [Republicans] would like to pass legislation like that, but for political reasons—and also because the Tennessee gun lobby is so powerful—they don’t consider those bills, and it’s just tragic,” Campbell said.
News 2 reached out to the press secretaries for the House Republican Caucus to interview Rep. Reedy on his House Joint Resolution, but as of publication they had not heard back from him, they said.
