The Tennessee Firearms Association announced its opposition to a pending bill under General Assembly consideration that lowers the handgun carry age from 21 to 18.
State Rep. Chris Todd (R-Madison) filed HB1735 last month. House Majority Leader William Lamberth is a co-sponsor. Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville) filed the companion bill, SB2291, on Wednesday.
A statement provided by Tennessee Firearms Association Executive Director John Harris to The Tennessee Star said:
“Tennessee Firearms Association has considered House Bill 1735 (Senate Bill 2291) and does not support the bill as filed. Current Tennessee law allows only those individuals who are 18-20 years old and who have military service to obtain an enhanced handgun permit while denying other 18-20 year olds who lack military service the capacity to obtain an enhanced handgun permit. This legislation would eliminate the clear equal protection problem of existing Tennessee law and would treat all 18-20 year old citizens the same with respect to the capacity to obtain a handgun permit.”
So rather than have the nose of the camel getting under the tent and get a partial victory and steppingstone to more achievements, we go loudly go ahead and shut the whole thing off because we could not get all the cookies. Did anybody approach the Legislators and said something like “Hey, I appreciate the bill, but can we get it to include everybody 18-20? What would you need to make that happen and how can we help?” rather than “Hey, Fuck you and your pussy bill! We want it all now or we shit on your idea in public!”
Just because we can’t fit all the passengers in the lifeboats does not mean we allow everybody to drown.
Realpolitiks is a hard concept to execute.
It’s the same reason why the Libertarian party never gets anywhere. They sit around all of the time and argue about who is the perfect libertarian, and anyone who isn’t perfect gets tossed out.
Meanwhile, the Democrats understand incrementalism like no one else does. They take our rights one at at time, while we stand there and complain that since we can’t get them all back at once, we don’t want any at all.
I admit the wording of the announcement is a bit muddled, but this doesn’t look like a case of opposing a partial victory. It sounds more like a case of opposing any kind of victory at all.
Consider: “This legislation would eliminate the clear equal protection problem of existing Tennessee law and would treat all 18-20 year old citizens the same with respect to the capacity to obtain a handgun permit.” So it seems the current law treats people unequally (in other words, the creation of THAT law was a partial victory). But here is a bill to remove that limitation and turn the partial victory into a complete victory. And they oppose that?
Is the TFA a wholly owned subsidiary of George Soros?
Making the better the enemy of the good.
Is the TFA a Dudley Brown NAGR funded group?
It is, in fact, a NAGR-affiliated group. Since around 2012-14 I think. Prior to that they were independent and much more effective than they are now.
They may not be effective, in fact they may (always) actually sabotage progress; but I bet they live really well on a tiny salary?
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And BONUS! There will always be the same big fight to ask for more money next year too. Just don’t look too hard into who profits from the direct mail and advertising campaigns To! Fight! For! Your! Rights!.
There are 2 groups in NH: Gun Owners of NH and NH Firearms Coalition. In the relatively short time that I’ve been here, I mostly hear members of 1 group lament that the other groups doesn’t really support gun rights. Sigh.
There is also the Women’s Defense League of NH. The members with whom I’m had contact seem like strong 2A Rights supporters.
Sad to say that I miss GOAL (Gun Owners Action League) in MA. They work really hard to derail horrible laws.
Lots of people have discovered the very lucrative method of deceiving your supporters for money on a regular basis. I won’t name any names in this comment.
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Sort of like the Republicans (and more than a few Democrats too) regularly trolling for contributions to Roll Back the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) about every other year. Got to admit, they did hold up their end of the deal, the AMT was never used. Those Campaign Contributions were paid off by temporarily postponing AMT Implementation. Year after Year they pulled the same stuff, use the AMT to “lower” the budget deficit, then getting credit for not collecting it from the rich and Upper Middle Class.
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President Donald Trump ruined that scam. He actually permanently abolished the AMT. Now you know why the Establishment hated him so. He ruined too many Washington DC scams. Just ask those folks with the annual cruises.