It’s D-Day In The State Of Tennessee

RINO (For those who don't know, stands for "Republican In Name Only") Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has called a special session of the Tennessee legislature to persuade them to pass a horribly egregious Red Flag gun confiscation law. Bill Lee is not a conservative; he is not a constitutionalist; he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. ANYONE who promotes or endorses Red Flag gun confiscation laws is no friend of Liberty - regardless of his party affiliation - and that includes Donald Trump.

I have covered this story before, and now the D-Day hour is almost here. Lee’s special session is scheduled to commence on August 21.

For those who may have missed my previous warning, I quote myself here:

Right now, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee is calling a special session of the legislature to take up a Red Flag gun confiscation bill. But Lee’s proposal goes further than any previous Red Flag law: It actually includes many prescription drugs that a person is taking as a cause to confiscate their guns.

The proposed Tennessee Red Flag gun confiscation bill is a MONSTER!

Here is a short list of some of the medical disorders that could disqualify a Tennessee citizen from exercising their right to keep and bear arms, depending on the medication they take:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (which targets veterans, of course)
• Anorexia
• Premenstrual Syndrome
• Eating Disorders
• Nerve Pain
• Male Sexual Problems
• Insomnia
• Postpartum Depression
• Fibromyalgia
• Hypochondria
• Chronic Headaches
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Sleep Disorders
• Personality Disorders
• Obesity

Under Governor Lee’s proposed gun confiscation bill, laws protecting medical privacy, such as HIPAA and others, would be suspended, and physicians or pharmacists would be required by law to report the use of medications used to treat the above disorders to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - which could trigger the confiscation of the person’s firearms.

(See also this column.)

What’s next after confiscating guns for the kinds of medicine you take? Confiscating guns for the kinds of books you read? Confiscating guns for the kinds of music you listen to? Confiscating guns for the kinds of podcasts you watch? Confiscating guns for the kinds of websites you visit? Confiscating guns for the kinds of organizations you belong to? Confiscating guns for the kinds of churches you attend?

Don’t say, “That can’t happen.” It not only can happen, it likely WILL happen. Once the door is open for them to confiscate your firearms due to the medications you take for your health (What could be more private and sacrosanct than that?), ANY criteria of what you do, where you go, who you associate with, and what you read, watch and listen to are all fair game.

The GOP-controlled State legislature in Tennessee already rejected Bill Lee’s Marxist gun confiscation plan during the last legislative session. Still determined to pass a Tennessee Red Flag gun confiscation law, however, Lee is calling the legislators back for another effort at bribing and arm-twisting them into submission.

But it looks like Bill Lee is going to have a tough go at it. (I hope the people of Tennessee remember this blatant sellout of our Constitution and Natural liberties when Bill Lee faces re-election.)

Here is the report out of Tennessee:

Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee members Saturday adopted a resolution that encourages Gov. Bill Lee to drop his planned Aug. 21 special legislative session where the Republican governor hopes to bolster the state's gun-safety laws despite most GOP leaders' opposition.

One committee member charged during the meeting in a Mt. Juliet hotel that the gathering will put House and Senate Republican members in danger with "crazies" from outside Tennessee flooding the state Capitol.

The eventual language settled on was proposed by another committee member, Tina Benkiser of Signal Mountain.

"The Tennessee Republican Party encourages Gov. Bill Lee to reconsider and not have a special session Aug. 21, 2023," her amendment said.

"I think Tennesseans not only are proud of but understand the Second Amendment," Benkiser told the Chattanooga Times Free Press after the committee wrapped up. "They are proud and agree with the Constitution of the United States.

"I feel at this point a lot of this is really emotion as opposed to rational and reasoned," Benkiser added. "My concern, and a lot of others' concerns, is that some of the proposals we've heard really violate due process of law. And that is a fundamental concern. And when you start talking about potentially infringing on people's constitutional rights, that needs to be thought out over a long period of time with people who have thought, debated, looked at the language, and fleshed all that out. Not something to be rushed through."

Benkiser said she hopes Lee will take heed of the GOP action.

"I understand that people sometimes act out of emotion when something horrendous has happened, as happened here in Nashville, but really to friends of his. I understand that, and I think the natural reaction is to want to do something and to want to do something now. But like I said, when you're talking about constitutional rights, at the end of the day, you need to take the time to think that out."

Committee member John Stanbery of Cleveland told the Times Free Press that legislators had an opportunity to pass the order of protection bill when they were in regular session and chose not to.

"So I personally do not know why you would call them back to do something they've already rejected," Stanbery said. "They rejected it by choosing not to do it.”

Many GOP lawmakers are opposed to the special session generally and especially the proposed order of protection measure.

If Bill Lee succeeds in his quest to enact a Red Flag gun confiscation law in Tennessee, it would be the third Republican State to do so. The other two GOP states already enacting Red Flag gun confiscation laws are Florida and Indiana. (I would also include Virginia in that list, but it is no longer a Republican State.)

But, if enacted, the Tennessee Red Flag gun confiscation law would be the most hideous abridgment of the Second Amendment to date. It would open a gun confiscation Pandora’s box that would engulf the entire country - well, most of the country.

IT AIN’T HAPPENING IN MONTANA - or Idaho or Wyoming or Utah or South Dakota or Oklahoma or Texas. And I doubt it would happen in Alabama or Mississippi. And I would hope it wouldn’t happen in Georgia. If Atlanta didn’t exist, I KNOW it wouldn’t happen in Georgia.

At the present time, Georgia is the most gun-friendly State in the entire Southeast. But overnight one mass shooting turned a “pro-Second Amendment” GOP governor in the very gun-friendly State of Tennessee into a Marxist gun grabber. Could that happen in Georgia? Time will tell.

The report above, however, gives hope that the Republican legislature in Tennessee seems to be in no mood to accommodate Bill Lee’s Stalinesque agenda.

In the meantime, it’s only days until D-Day in the State of Tennessee.

The best thing that could happen would be that Bill Lee would follow the urging of the Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee and rescind his call for a special session.

My gut tells me that Lee is dancing to a piper outside the Tennessee Republican caucus or Tennessee Republican electorate and, therefore, will NOT call it off. If that’s the case, then it will come down to how committed the GOP legislators in Tennessee are to the Second Amendment, because the bribes will flow like the Mississippi River and arm-twisting like the New York mafia.

Indeed, it’s D-Day in the State of Tennessee.

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