Stockard on the Stump: Memphis replaces Nashville as legislative leaders’ target

Teenage protesters, and a few parents, fill the Tennessee House of Representatives gallery on March 30 to ask for safe gun laws.(Photo: John Partipilo)

The tempest rising out of Memphis is threatening to turn Nashville into a political backwater, at least for the moment.

Since Republican lawmakers returned from the woodshed after a legal whipping over failed efforts to run Metropolitan Nashville, they appear to have shifted their efforts to controlling West Tennessee’s largest city.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally issued a sudden statement Monday saying the “Legislature will not tolerate any attempt to go rogue and perform political sideshows,” as if that’s not what lawmakers do on a daily basis. Sexton and McNally couched a threat to withhold more than $75 million in sales tax revenue from Memphis by saying their action would affect any local government that tries to circumvent state law.

GOP leaders promise punitive tax move if Memphis passes gun restrictions; state moves to block them

The only problem is Sexton and McNally launched into semi-tirades against Shelby and Memphis, which would make it clear in the eyes of a court that their ire is directed at the Bluff City. And as much as lawmakers don’t want their words in Cordell Hull or the Capitol to be used against them, they’re right there in black and white for the world to see and hear.

(By the way, what does calling the Shelby County district attorney general “soft on crime” have to do with proposed referendums for gun restrictions? Sexton apparently made it a combo platter.)

But while the two speakers want to punish Memphis for asking voters how they feel about adopting handgun carry permits, military-style weapons restrictions and red flag laws to rein in unstable people (something the governor wanted to enact after the Covenant School shooting), does it make sense to prevent something they claim to be unconstitutional with something that isn’t legal? Will punishing the state’s second-biggest revenue producer keep its residents and elected leaders from trying to stop gun violence with what city leaders claim is a non-binding referendum?

Their press release sounds more like an angry missive than a solid move, as much as they’d like to think it’s court-proof, and they’re in dire need of a legal win.

This question is critical because, while legislative leaders want to blame District Attorney Steve Mulroy for Memphis shootings, the Legislature is more responsible for gun thefts and shootings than any small group of officials in Tennessee.

Take a look at the spike in vehicle gun thefts since the Legislature passed the idiotic “guns in trunks” bill in 2013.

Business and bar owners a decade ago said they didn’t want employees carrying guns and beer drinkers bellying up with a Beretta, so in its infinite wisdom, the Legislature said, “OK, you can store your guns in the trunk or a lock box.”

It backfired.

But instead of reversing course, the Legislature passed Gov. Lee’s permit-less handgun carry bill that allows any knucklehead in the state to carry a weapon without a permit or any type of training. Then, our beloved Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti negotiated a lawsuit settlement that allows 18-year-olds to carry without a permit. The Legislature later concurred.

This series of sorry decisions leaves us asking the question: Is it more important to cave into the gun lobby for the sake of Second Amendment purity or to have cities able to enjoy a hot summer night without the sound of shootings.

Tennessee somehow managed to make it into the 21st century with a modicum of gun control while still allowing people to carry pistols and hunt everything that crawls, flies or walks without destroying people’s constitutional rights.

That wasn’t enough to satisfy some folks, though, and we’re paying a steep price.

As Memphis desperately seeks a way to quell the shootings, House and Senate leaders say no. Then the Secretary of State’s Office – switching tactics – says Memphis is breaking the law by putting gun-related questions on a referendum, forcing the Republican-controlled Shelby Election Commission to disallow the questions . This is all likely to push the argument into court where the state has not fared well.

The House Speaker’s Office backs that up with the contention these referendums are nothing but a strategy to drive people to the polls in November where at least one Republican, Rep. John Gillespie of Memphis, appears to be vulnerable to Democratic candidate Jesse Huseth. Is he worth the risk?

Gillespie, who passed a bill this year reversing Memphis’ effort to stop police from making the type of “pretextual” traffic stops that led to the beating death of Tyre Nichols, will not respond to requests for comment. (The Tennessee Journal reported Friday Gillespie said he would vote for the referendums.) Huseth, on the other hand, scoffs at the notion that the Memphis City Council referendums are political in nature.

As summer’s heat drags on, the clash between Memphis and Tennessee’s House and Senate speakers is giving us, if nothing else, hope for a lively session in 2025. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck with taking the over-under on the burial date for Gov. Bill Lee’s latest iteration of private-school vouchers. (Street talk says they’re already DOA.)

Return of the Jedi?

They’re not exactly Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, but Rep. Caleb Hemmer and Sen. Jeff Yarbro are reviving an effort to make people safely store weapons in vehicles, ending the plague of thefts that, more likely than not, lead to gun-related crimes.

The two Nashville Democrats say they’re not trying to punish gun owners, arguing that their bill – which hasn’t gotten much support in the Republican-controlled chambers – would allow large cities to enact safe gun storage regulations. Sounds like everyone’s sales tax share will be cut in that case.

The measure set to be filed in 2025 would, in part, require people to report gun thefts to authorities and to take safe-gun storage training if someone steals guns from their home or vehicle.

Tennessee reps irked by state’s failure on gun safe storage campaign

The FBI reports an average of one gun is stolen from a car every nine minutes nationwide, and Tennessee is leading in that category. Memphis ranks first, Chattanooga is No. 12 and Nashville is No. 13. Not quite the type of high ratings we want. But what the heck, the Titans aren’t going to win the Super Bowl.

Last week alone, Nashville reported 19 guns stolen from vehicles, bringing the total to 583 this year, according to Metro Nashville Police. That’s 71% of the 812 stolen across Davidson County.

Only about 4% of those cases are solved, Hemmer says, “because of the unique nature of the crime,” which often involves “smash-and-grabs.”

“We’re really asking gun owners to do their part and make a safer community. This really is about personal responsibility,” Hemmer says.

They didn’t say this, but one possible solution would be for people to take their pistols into any place, whether on the job, at the grocery store or drinking establishments such as Springwater, Nashville’s oldest bar (not encouraging this).

Then again, business owners have spoken against this. Does anyone care anymore?

Even Republicans went against their own deeply-held beliefs when they overrode businesses and told them they couldn’t require masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, proving their beliefs aren’t that deep after all.

Memphis and Nashville, in addition to Tennessee Highway Patrol, offer free gun locks . But to no avail.

You can’t turn and fire like John Shaft if you have to unlock your gun. Of course, he was a detective. But who needs a stinkin’ badge these days to catch the bad guys?

Last year, a gun stolen from a car at Metro Nashville’s airport was used to shoot a Metro police officer . He lived.

“One of the things you can’t ignore about crime generally is that a majority of homicides and armed assaults occur with stolen weapons,” Yarbro says. “The fact we have a glut of stolen weapons on Tennessee streets makes everyone less safe.”

In 2013, only 46 vehicle gun thefts were reported in Tennessee. Fast-forward, and more than 5,000 are reported every year, Yarbro points out, arguing the statistics correlate directly with the “guns in trunks” law.

Never fear, though, legislators will ride to the rescue next year, and, no doubt, many of them will be armed, even though guns are not supposed to be carried in the State Capitol.

On the way out?

The state Ethics Commission held an executive session Thursday to discuss a sworn complaint against Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds for taking trips to conferences paid for by pro-voucher, pro-charter school lobbying group ExcelInEd. The Tennessee Journal reported on the matter initially.

Bill Young, executive director of the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, could not confirm the subject of the closed-door meeting.

But Rep. Caleb Hemmer, who filed the complaint, said he was told he would be receiving a letter about the outcome of the commission’s decision. It would either dismiss the case against Reynolds or send it to the Attorney General’s Office for an investigation, he said.

“Curious minds await,” Hemmer added.

Speculation is that Reynolds won’t stay around to await the outcome of a state probe into her year-long tenure if it goes to the attorney general.

Aside from Hemmer’s complaint, Reynolds has been dogged by revelations she wasn’t qualified to teach at the 12th-grade level, which is a requirement for her position, and received a waiver to take a class at UT-Martin that she didn’t pay for, in spite of signing a sworn statement that she footed the bill.

Questions also were raised about Reynolds after critics found she continued to own her Texas home while registering to vote in Tennessee in 2023. Gov. Lee has continued to support her despite the persistent problems.

Well, maybe you were right …

Ford Motor Co. balked earlier this summer when the Tennessee Lookout reported that it pushed back production of its electric F150 pickup truck, Lightning, at BlueOval City, the massive plant under construction in West Tennessee.

The market shifted when demand for electric trucks plummeted because of concerns about the technology, price and maintenance. Thus, the need to expedite electric trucks fell off precipitously.

Last week, though, Ford said it would delay production until 2027, more than a year later than the latest delayed date. It’s hard to tell how much of this is affected by the presidential election.

Production at Ford’s West Tenn. plant delayed to 2027 in attempt to improve profitability

Vice President Kamala Harris is more likely to embrace the transition to electric vehicles than former President Donald Trump. But he appears to have his finger in the wind at all times, likely to shift his position depending on who’s listening.

The Legislature certainly doesn’t want Ford to fail, since it gave the company nearly a billion dollars in incentives to rescue the rural West Tennessee economy. Gov. Lee is on the hook, too, even though he’ll be out of office by the time this is resolved.

If the whole thing does collapse, which isn’t likely because Ford’s huge plant is nearly complete, Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky of Culleoka and GOP Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald will take on folk hero status, after voting against the Ford funding plan.

And, good grief, we don’t need another hero.

“Operator, could you help place this call”

I tried to call Congressman Andy Ogles the other day, and the FBI answered.

(Sorry for the bad joke). But when the feds confiscate your cell phone as part of an investigation into your campaign finances, sometimes you become the butt of jokes.

“Isn’t that the way they say it goes?” Jim Croce