Early special session meetings see more spectators removed than bills advanced

Members of the Tennessee State Senate appear to be approaching the special session on public safety in a more abbreviated fashion than their House counterparts.Senators on the Commerce and Labor Committee wrapped up their meeting in just over a minute of time while members of Senate Judiciary Committee advanced just three bills. Senators in both committees voted to lay the remaining bills on the table, which essentially kills them for the special session.The short meetings were quickly met with opposition by Democratic party leaders including Senator Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville.“Heard & voted on just 3 bills. Adjourned without hearing the other 52 that were filed.  Embarrassing week for the General Assembly all around,” wrote Yarbro on his Twitter page.The bills that advanced in the Senate include:

• SB7085 which expands a program to provide free firearm locks to Tennessee residents and exempts firearm safes and firearm safety devices from sales and use taxes.
• SB7086 which changes from 30 days to 72 business hours the time frame within which a court clerk must report criminal proceeding information to the TBI’s Tennessee Instant Check (TIC) system of the final disposition of criminal proceedings.
• SB7088 which requires the TBI to submit a report on child and human trafficking crimes and trends in this state annually.

None of the advancing bills faced opposition but a representative from the TBI told members the agency already reports the information required in SB088.The changes in SB7086 are also currently in effect through an executive order Governor Bill Lee signed in April to ensure information is provided quickly and electronically to the TBI’s background check system.  The legislation would codify those requirements.“An example of this would be if someone is convicted of a felony, that information should be reported into the background check system so that if they attempt to purchase a firearm, they would be unable to do so. They would not pass the background check.  Also included in that…are instances where an individual is adjudicated as a mental defective or is involuntary committed,” said Senator Jack Johnson, R-Franklin.  “This executive order has been in effect since April of this year and this system has been working well.”

Ejections Abound in House Meetings

The State House subcommittee meetings proved to be more eventful, especially in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee.Chair Lowell Russell, R-Vonore, began the subcommittee's early meeting by removing all spectators who were holding signs under a newly passed House rule.  Representative Russell then removed all spectators later in the meeting for clapping.“Are we going to quiet down and listen or are we gonna sit there and clap,” asked Russell before ordering state troopers to clear the room of spectators.Committee members additionally failed to even discuss multiple bills filed by Democrats because of a lack of a “second.”  Representative Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis is the only Democrat on the subcommittee.“Please allow us to at least just hear the bills and if you don’t like the bills just vote em down,” said Parkinson.Representative Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, told committee members that sponsors of the legislation that failed to get a second never contacted him personally.  Farmer says he believes that’s one reason why the committee didn’t give them a “second.”“They didn’t work their bills,” said Farmer. “You’ve gotta work your legislation if you want your legislation to pass.”The House Civil Justice Subcommittee did advance 8 bills in the early session, including the House version of SB7085.Members spent the most time debating HB7064 that allows active and retired members of law enforcement and the military along with enhanced handgun carry permit holders the ability to go armed on PreK-12 school grounds.The legislation faced opposition from the Tennessee Department of Safety.Director of Legislative Affairs Elizabeth Stroeker says the department has worked to provide school resource officers (SRO) in every school and it would prefer individuals with that training to protect schools.“This would allow people without any training in firearms or how to be in a school, or how to protect people in some type of mass casualty event or rapid response emergency event and that’s where our concerns are coming from as it could potentially create a situation where you’ve got someone who is armed, under stress in a high stress situation and not know how to respond,“ said Stroeker.Stroeker also said the department is concerned that the legislation would allow a person who wasn’t honorably discharged from the military to carry on school grounds.Multiple Republican House members took issue with the department’s opposition to the legislation including bill sponsor Representative Chris Todd, R-Madison County.“As law enforcement has told me about your SRO program, one is none, two is one. In schools we have one SRO. Law enforcement generally treats that as zero. They need back-up. They need help,” said Todd.Committee members advanced Representative Todd's legislation to the full House Civil Justice Committee.