Feb. 19th, 2004 Meeting - Dr. Jesse Cannon, Guest Speaker

[dwaldrip]

The February meeting of the TFA Shelby County Chapter will be Thursday, February 19th at 7 PM at RangeUSA in Bartlett. The meeting will be either in the Liberty Grille or in the classroom next to the Liberty Grille.

John Hunsucker, Program Chairperson, has confirmed to be our speaker this month. Dr. Cannon is a physician from Haywood County and is running against House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh to represent District 81. This district includes both Tipton and Haywood Counties.

This is a race that a LOT of political "watchers" are going to watch.

Make a difference.

See you Thursday the 19th, and bring a friend.

David Waldrip, Director
Shelby County Chapter

[MitchSchaft]

Nice going, John. I appreciate your efforts!

[dwaldrip]

These comments are per an email sent out on the TFALAC email list:

----- Original Message -----
From: DCDL
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:56 AM
Subject: Text of Dr. Cannon's Speech to the TFA

Mr. Harris,

Here is the copy of Dr. Cannon’s address to the Shelby County chapter of the TFA that you asked me to send you. Dr. Cannon asked if you would be interested in him working up this speech into an article for your newsletter. He would be glad to do it or work on another topic if you prefer.

On the topic of HB1479, I am sure you know that it passed yesterday. Dr. Cannon changed the first part if his speech to reflect that fact yesterday afternoon. Also the bill will have to go back to the State Senate for approval due to some of the amendments added by the House. So there is still a chance to defeat it. Would you mind once we get the details if we passed them onto you for another alert to your members?

I want to thank you again for your interest in Dr. Cannon’s campaign. I look forward to hearing from you about Dr. Cannon’s article.

Dean Duke
Campaign Manager
Dr. Jesse Cannon Campaign

Text of Dr. Cannon’s Address to the Shelby County Chapter of the TFA

{Opening Remarks}

I want to thank John Hunsucker and David Waldrip for their invitation to speak to the Shelby County Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association. I particularly want to thank all of you for coming out this evening so I could meet with you.

Before I get started I wanted to also thank the TFA for helping us to get the word out on how my opponent is backing a major change in the process of setting the fees for hunting and fishing licenses. If you happened to miss the e-mail, I want to take just a moment to share this information with all of you:

Currently, state law gives the power to raise or lower the fee for hunting and fishing licenses to the State Legislature. Last week the House Finance Committee considered HB 1479 that would strip this authority from the State Legislature and give that power to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s governing commission. As you know the members of the TWRA governing commission are appointed not elected. When some of the committee members began to question the soundness of this transfer of power my opponent jumped up from the audience and spoke out for the bill’s passage.

A portion of what he said was reported in the Tennessean: “All the true sportsmen are for this bill,'' Naifeh said, ''These are the ones that know what it takes to have a good state where you can hunt and fish and have someone like TWRA looking after it. … We've been 14 years not able to push the button to give TWRA any additional license increase. This is your out.” - Tennessean article dated 02/11/04

“This is your out”, could there be a more telling appeal by a politician wanting to be released from the yoke of responsibility to the voters of Tennessee? By his own words Representative Naifeh stated that for 14 years the TWRA has not been able to present a strong enough case to justify the legislature raising the license fee. The Representatives, knowing that they would have to return to their districts and face the voters with no reasonable explanation for the increase, wisely refused to approve a cost increase. But now Representative Naifeh has found an “OUT”, simply give the authority to an appointed board answerable to no one. Then when the fees are increased and if the voters complain just tell them that you’re not responsible.

TWRA has announced that once this bill passes it will increase fees by an estimated 30%, and they will have the authority to raise them again anytime they wish. I wanted you to be aware of what was happening and ask you to help get the word out about this bill to other sportsmen.

As I was thinking about what I wanted to say to you this evening I began to wonder what would be the best way to get across to you how I feel about the issues of gun owner rights, the right to carry and my philosophy on gun laws.

I felt that coming here and talking with you about the value of the 2nd Amendment to the citizens of the United States would be like preaching to the choir. Besides, I believe that the value of having armed citizens has been repeatedly proven during the 200 plus years since our Constitution was ratified.

I considered speaking on the wisdom that the drafters of Tennessee’s constitution showed when they reconfirmed the right of our citizens to own and carry firearms, when they wrote in Article 1, Section 26:

“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.” - Tennessee Constitution, Article I - Declaration of Rights, Section 26

But then I realized that no organization has done more or fought harder to insure that Tennesseans receive the full benefits of this right more than the Tennessee Firearms Association. The TFA was in the forefront of the battle to pass the legislation to issue carry permits and have continued to lead the efforts to improve and streamline the issuing process. They have shown a deep understanding of the responsibilities that go with this right, by pushing for stricter requirements for training classes on gun safety, gun use and gun laws for permit holders. I remember in the days leading up to the carry permit law being passed, how its opponents predicted that if it was passed Tennessee would look like the streets of Dodge City on a Saturday night in the old west. Due to TFA’s efforts to educate permit holders on the responsibilities that go along with carrying a firearm, these predictions have not come to pass. Tennesseans have greatly benefited from the vigilance of this organization.

But again, I find that we are all in agreement on this subject and I didn’t feel I would meet my goal of explaining to you my positions and philosophy on the issues of firearms by discussing Article 1, Section 26.

Then I remembered a sign I saw one time at a gun range that listed the rules of its use. I remembered how simple and practical those rules were. I thought if we could just remove all the rhetoric from both sides of the debate over this subject and approach it with the same simple and practical method as those range rules, I believe we would find that we have more allies in our cause than we know.

I want to share a few of those rules with you to show what I mean.



.

Before proposing any new gun legislation it is important that we ensure that we are moving our cause in a safe direction whether that legislation is designed to loosen or tighten the restrictions for carrying a firearm. Just as we must guard against any legislation that will cause us to lose this freedom, we must also ensure that we don’t loosen restrictions to the point that we invite abuses. The people who oppose carry permits are waiting for an incident of abuse that they can use as a weapon to overturn all that you have fought so hard to achieve. We must be sure that any legislation is in the best interest of gun owners then decide whether or not to commit our support.



All of us can understand the danger to ourselves and others that this type of shooting can cause in a public setting. The same type of danger can happen if we do not properly prepare ourselves before supporting or opposing any gun legislation. Far too often those who step up to defend proposed gun legislation don’t take the time to check all the facts or develop sound arguments. Let me give you an example from a debate going on today.

I recently picked up a newspaper and read the headline, “Bill to allow guns in bars filed in House”. Listening to the debate surrounding this bill over the last few weeks I have been amazed at the number of supporters who have stepped up to defend this bill on talk radio and other forums, who have actually defended carrying a handgun into a bar. In their enthusiasm to defend a pro-gun bill they allowed the anti-gun forces to place them in a position to defend an illogical stance.

It was not until we began to research what this bill was trying to do that its purpose became clear. A TFA member sat down with my staff and explained that the purpose was to bring Tennessee’s current law, which bans the wearing of a firearm in any businesses that sell alcohol, to be more in line with the Texas law that bans a permit holder from carrying a firearm into a business that receives 51% of its income from the sale of alcohol. That would ban the carrying of a firearm into a true bar or club but allow wearing a firearm into a Logan’s or Applebee’s where they could go for a meal and not have to disarm. Putting it that way it made perfect sense.

But because so many are willing to shoot from the hip instead of taking their time and being sure of the facts, we too often end up shooting ourselves in the foot. That is the major benefit of organizations like the TFA that work to keep their members informed and ready to help the cause of permit holders.

And finally this last rule:



Everyone who applies for a firearm carry permit must go through classes that instruct them in the responsibilities of carrying a gun. It is important that we never lose sight of the fact that our actions will affect not only ourselves but everyone who has a carry permit. I mentioned earlier that there are those who would like nothing more than to have a permit carrier involved in a major incident that they can use to destroy all the advances we have made. The greatest burden that those who are licensed to carry a firearm have is the knowledge that their actions will affect the freedoms of those who will come after them.

As a State Representative I will work to protect the advances we have made in carry permits and I will support efforts to improve our current laws to make them more responsive to the permit holders.

I will never lose sight that it is my responsibility to ensure that this freedom will be passed on to our children and grandchildren.

Again, thank you all for being here tonight and May God bless you all!

*********************************

After the meeting, I was talking to Dr. Cannon about being a consevative. He said that when he begain to think about what Ronald Reagan was saying years ago about conservatism, he realized the truth of the prinicples, and Ronald Reagan converted him to being a conservative.