How long must we wait?
With a “Republican” supermajority…
When the British, through their Officer Patrick “Bulldog” Ferguson sent orders to the riffraff that populated the area of what was then Western North Carolina (what would become Tennessee) to “desist from their opposition to British arms” or failing to kowtow, they would “march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.” The men who just wanted to be left alone to enjoy the freedom to order their own lives at the frontier responded. Not years or decades later but poste haste.
The original Tennessee copycat version of the Second Amendment, written by those who were on the front lines of that insurrection (and that is what it was as England was our government at the time) were instrumental in penning what Jefferson said was the “least imperfect and most republican” of the state documents made sure the descendants of those brave men were promised the ability to enjoy the natural right to arms that would always be necessary to hold government in check. Those words were written in the language the participants in the insurrection/revolution understood in Article 11th § 26th:
That the free men of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defence.
John Sevier (who would become first governor of the state” influenced the writing of our original constitution from outside the Andrew Jackson circle and as one of the leaders of the Overmountain Men who defied their government and wagered their lives against tyranny with rifles, knives and clubs. He insisted in the promise to future generations that they forever hold the right to arms as understood a the time. Only a fool or a tyrant would have constrained Sevier and his follower to accost the British led loyalist, charging up a mountainside into erected bullworks with only handguns…
Yet, a taxpayer funded lobbyist, Legislative Director and General Council of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security testified before our state congress that handguns are sufficient for self-defense of Tennesseans.
In Tennessee, until 1989 it was lawful for those who could possess long guns to carry long guns with ammunition within reach. (Like every state that borders Tennessee can do now). Ancient residents still above ground can remember when you could drive your pickup to school and park it on those grounds with your shotgun, rifle or both in a rack in the back window, legally. Governor Ned McWherter and House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh were the authors and causal agents of the infringement recognized by Tench Coxe in the Founding period on the natural right to arms when he said,
“Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an Americans”
Proof of my thought process is the quote from the dicta in Supreme Court Case, Heller in 2008:
“In Andrews v. State, the Tennessee Supreme Court likewise held that a statute that forbade openly carrying a pistol “publicly or privately, without regard to time or place, or circumstances,” 50 Tenn., at 187 (1871), violated the state constitutional provision (which the court equated with the Second Amendment). That was so even though the statute did not restrict the carrying of long guns.” - District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 629 (2008)
Our Governor knows the truth of this argument, as does the Attorney General of the State, the Speakers of the House and Senate, every member of Leadership of both Chambers and every unelected bureaucrat in the Department of Safety and the TBI.
The Legislature can remove this Jim Crow infringement, the issue has been raised, what will they do?
How long must we wait?