Almost to a member, conservative lawmakers in Tennessee have been skeptical — or outright opposed — to anything that could be considered a “red flag” law, including a proposal by Gov. Bill Lee to allow guns to be confiscated from people found by a judge to be a threat to themselves or others.
So what do they support instead?
With about a month to go before lawmakers are scheduled to return to the state Capitol, Republicans are considering proposals that range from tax incentives for safe gun storage to the involuntary commitment of those facing mental health issues.
It’s still early to say what policies will actually be on the table — topics allowed to be considered will depend on the scope of the governor’s proclamation calling the legislature into special session.
“We’re hopeful that [the call] will allow us to do some things in the public safety realm and mental health and some other things,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, told The Tennessean.
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, is having conversations with stakeholders and constituents but believes any discussion of specific legislation before a call is made is “entirely premature,” spokesperson Adam Kleinheider told The Tennessean.
But some are willing to discuss their plans. Here’s what might be coming.
More mental health beds
Many members of the Republican caucus see public safety threats around guns as directly linked with mental health crises. To that end, support appears to be coalescing around increasing the number of available beds in state mental health facilities.
“We don’t have the beds we need,” Rep. Rusty Grills, R-Newbern, recently told the Tennessee Firearms Association, one of the leading groups in the state opposed to any proposals dealing directly with guns. “If you talk with sheriffs, with police officers, they’ll tell you that they are struggling with the jails because they’re filled with people who have mental issues.”
Rep. Scott Cepcicky, R-Culleoka, said he is planning to propose a robust response: nine new state-funded mental health facilities — one built in each Congressional district in the state.
Each facility would include 150 new patient beds, costing the state an estimated $40 to $50 million each. The state would then contract with a private health care provider, and invest remaining resources into maintenance and administration.
“You’re talking a significant investment in providing opportunities for people to get the help they need in both inpatient, outpatient and long term care,” Cepicky told The Tennessean.
Sexton agrees the state needs to focus on providing more robust mental health care for those who need it.
“We have 577 inpatient beds that are state run,” he said. “That’s not enough.”
Separately, Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, plans to reintroduce a proposal he sponsored during the regular session to require all mental health facilities in the state to make daily updates to the statewide portal of available beds to allow providers to more quickly identify where beds are available.
Involuntary commitment
Others are considering a proposal similar to a Florida law permitting involuntary commitment.
“I don’t think the legislature needs to think or consider any gun control legislation. I think instead we need to, as I said, focus on what’s truly dangerous, and that is the person — the operator — of the weapon who is either in a mental health crisis, or just in a situation where they want to harm themselves or harm others,” Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, during a recent TFA appearance.
Stevens said he is researching the implications of Florida’s law that allows illicit drug users and those with serious mental health issues to be committed.
“We need to be able to get those individuals the care they need, or if nothing else, we just need to get them incapacitated so that they will not be able to harm others,” he said.
Sexton said lawmakers may consider allowing some involuntary commitments for individuals who pose an imminent, but not immediate, threat to themselves or others. Currently, emergency involuntary commitments are used primarily for suicidal individuals under an immediate threat of self harm.
“It doesn’t help for someone who has a mental health disorder, or someone who is proposing a mass threat — because that’s not deemed immediate, you don’t know when that is,” Sexton said. “Having these conversations about simply changing that word to something else may help us, in the Covenant shooting or other things, to allow someone to be committed who is a threat, but may not be immediate.”
But involuntary commitment proposals could prove controversial.
In April, when Lee’s office was pushing for his proposal at the end of the legislative session, staff members drafted memos accusing the National Rifle Association of wanting to use involuntary commitment laws “to round up mentally ill people and deprive them of other liberties,” the Associated Press reported.
“Not only is the NRA’s proposal impractical — it would drastically expand the scope of government,” one memo read.
Streamlining background checks
Sexton would like the legislature to begin the task of streamlining the state’s system for background checks before purchase of a firearm. He cited a report from The Tennessean revealing 250,000 disposed cases that have not yet been added to the state’s background check database.
“There’s cases out there from 12 years ago where it still hadn’t been in there,” he said. “So we need to solve that issue.”
Approval of funding to implement a new software system across the state during the August session would avoid a delay until July 2024 when the next state budget would take effect.
“It gets us closer to having instant background checks and instant mental health checks, which we all assume we were doing, but the data shows that we’re not,” he said.
Safe storage incentivized, not required
Sparks also plans to propose the state permanently waive state sales tax for gun safes to encourage safe storage of firearms. Sparks said he has met with representatives from Voices for a Safer Tennessee, the National Rifle Association, Tennessee Firearms Association, and Moms Demand Action.
“I’ve got the only gun bill that all these people are in support of,” he told The Tennessean.
Sexton also supports the idea of a permanent sales tax reprieve — and says it should also apply to tools to secure guns in vehicles.
Neither support a requirement for gun owners to keep their guns locked up.
“I think each person who owns guns in our house should take it upon themselves to do what they need to do to secure those locations to protect their children,” Sexton said.
Dispossession by conservatorship
House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett, R-Goodlettsville, is considering a proposal to allow Tennessee’s conservatorship laws to provide for dispossession of weapons, including firearms if a judge finds it necessary.
During conservatorship proceedings, the potential ward is represented by an attorney, and each side presents proof, including medical and mental health evidence. The potential ward has the ability to argue a conservatorship is not needed.
“The judge decides whether or not what particular rights that needs to be removed from an individual in order to protect them,” Garrett said.
Under Garrett’s proposal, a judge could find that a potential ward should be dispossessed of any weapons — not just firearms.
“What I’m envisioning that this would do is that the conservator would have the authority to go in the home and basically remove the weapons. The conservator would either have to hold them and be accountable for them — they couldn’t get rid of them or sell them or anything,” he said. “But they could not be where the ward could get their hands on them — if that’s part of the proof in this conservatorship proceeding that this person does not need to have access to a weapon.”
Once a conservatorship is established, the court would periodically review to determine whether it needs to continue.
“When you take someone’s rights away — the bill of rights include the Second Amendment — there needs to be more protection for that person so it’s not abused later on,” he said.
‘A sanctuary for the Second Amendment’
Meanwhile, some other Republicans say the answer to public safety threats is a more prepared public.
“I think Tennessee needs to be a sanctuary for the Second Amendment,” first-term Rep. Kip Capley, R-Summertown, said during a recent appearance on the Tennessee Firearms Association’s YouTube channel.
“I think we need to further the rights of the Second Amendment,” Capley said. “I think the more firearms in the hands of good guys and good men and women, and law enforcement. That’s how you stop evil. A good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun every single time.”
Rep. Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, indicated that gun-free zones may be an issue.
“Establishing unconstitutional conditions where a person’s right of property and self-protection is abridged before he or she commits a crime is an example of these systemic solutions offered by the left,” Fritts told The Tennessean in an email.
“Ownership, possession, carry, and training incentives are much more reasonable and constitutional approaches to preventing violent behaviors in our society,” he added. “Those violent behaviors are perpetrated by many means, not just firearms. A focus on firearms alone is indicative of a purely anti-2A objective.”
National Rifle Association bill
Despite the governor’s close ties with the National Rifle Association — including a former top aide departing his office to lead the NRA-backed effort to pass permitless carry law in 2021 — the nation’s powerful pro-gun group strongly opposes his proposal on mental health orders of protection.
“The NRA works hard in the state to look out for our members and protect their rights, and toward that aim we oppose Gov. Lee’s ERPO bill,” NRA-ILA State Director Kelby Seanor told The Tennessean in an email.
The NRA is, however, working with Senate Speaker Pro Tem Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, on a separate proposal to “address public safety issues raised by the attack on Covenant School that preserves due process and also protects the public from dangerous criminals,” Haile told The Tennessean.
“I am currently working with concerned citizens and various groups including law enforcement, mental health experts and the NRA on conservative public safety solutions that maintain our constitutional rights,” Haile said.
Reach reporter Vivian Jones at vjones@tennessean.com.