Now for the House...

[Pat McGarrity]

Two points:

One: I expect Bredesen keeps Naifeh on a short leash, and doesn't want to be called a gun grabber in future political races, so Naifeh may not kill this, as he usually does with pro-gun legislation.

Two: The problem in Louisiana was, and still is; that both the governor there and mayor of New Orleans are incompetent. They have enough power, and have a history of abusing it.

TFA will be watching this vote closely!

In Liberty,

Pat McGarrity
Director - Shelby County, TFA


http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/loc ... 61,00.html

Tenn. Senate OK's bill limiting gun seizure during crisis

By Richard Locker
The Commercial Appeal
March 28, 2007

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday
intended to prohibit the government from confiscating firearms during a
natural disaster or emergency.

The bill is scheduled for subcommittee review next Wednesday in the House
of Representatives, which did not approve a similar measure last year.

Gov. Phil Bredesen and the bill’s sponsor, Senate Republican Leader Mark
Norris of Collierville, reached an agreement on the issue last week that
both said accomplishes what they wanted with the bill. The governor had
expressed concerns about the bill early in the session because it placed
restrictions on broad authority already enumerated in state law given the
governor to respond to emergencies.

The agreement struck from Norris’ original bill provisions that would have
rewritten two existing provisions in state law dealing with the governor’s
power to order the confiscation of any private property and to suspend or
limit the "sale, dispensing, or transportation of alcoholic beverages,
firearms, explosives, and combustibles."

Instead of striking those provisions from existing law, the bill that won
approval Wednesday simply adds a new provision that says "the state, a
political subdivision or a public official shall not prohibit nor impose
additional restrictions on the lawful possession, transfer, sale,
transport, carrying, storage, display or use of firearms and ammunition or
firearm or ammunition components."

The bill passed 32-0. Norris said after the vote that he had "offered (to
the governor) to reduce some of the surplus language and just stick to the
meat of the matter. It’s there in black and white that regardless of the
emergency powers any governor may have, they shall not abrogate our right
to keep and bear arms."

Bredesen gave his public support to the revised version on Monday.

"I don’t think I was ever really opposing it," the governor told reporters.
"I had a concern about chipping away at the powers of the governor in an
emergency, which I expressed to him (Norris). Sen. Norris and one of my
staff members worked out some language that everybody was happy with and I
support the bill.

"The principle here is that one of the things we all learned after
Hurricane Katrina is that when you have an emergency, you want to make sure
the governor has all the tools in hand to be able to deal with the
emergency," he said. "That was one of the fundamental problems in
Louisiana. So anytime someone wants to strain those powers I just think
it’s something we should think very carefully about. I’m comfortable with
the changes Sen. Norris did."