Tennessee is an interesting state, at least from looking at it from the outside. They have several decent-sized cities which, at least in theory, should have a massive impact on state politics, and yet they’re still a very pro-gun state. They’re like the Great Smokey Mountain Texas in that way.
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One of those cities that one would have thought would have an impact on state politics is Memphis. Again, they don’t, as was clear when they had to fight just to put a referendum for gun control on the ballot–a non-binding referendum, it should be noted.
Now, though, it seems city leaders in Memphis think they can put pressure on state lawmakers to adopt gun control.
Memphis City Council wants gun violence addressed at the state level for next year’s legislative session.
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Memphis City councilwoman Jerri Green said the board has a goal to change gun reform in Tennessee.
“As council people we see it, we hear it all the time from police officers, from community members, gun violence is overtaking our city, and we’ve got to do something about it,” Green said. “Our city is bleeding out, and we’re asking for emergency help from the state.”
Green said the council plans to create an ordinance in the event gun legislation changes during next year’s session. She told ABC24 their board wants a retreat with state lawmakers and lobby at the state capital.
“We’re asking for very simple things like background checks, no permit less carry, we want people not to have weapons of war near our children at schools. These are really basic common-sense things,” she said.
Green said she believes what Memphis accomplished on Election Day with passing all proposed gun referendums could inspire other cities across the state.
Here’s the thing. Gun control isn’t a new idea. If there was political will to pass gun control, it would have likely happened by now, especially after a special session was created just to pass gun control. Nothing happened then.
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The truth is that while folks in Memphis might have said they wanted those specific measures, there’s little indication that it’s enough of an issue with anyone else to move the needle on guns in the rest of the state. Even if every city had the same referendum with the same results, the fact that pro-gun lawmakers keep getting elected means it’s just not that big of a deal with the voters.
Memphis doesn’t get to decide what the rest of the state does. Their referendum didn’t sway anyone except, maybe, state lawmakers representing Memphis, and most of those are already anti-gun anyway.
The problem is that these guys think they can pressure state lawmakers into doing their bidding when there’s no indication they can pressure anyone to do anything. Maybe if they “pressured” criminals to stop hurting people, they’d get a lot more accomplished and not have to trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens.
Then again, that would require work on their part, and we can’t have that.
