Is there a “right” of the People of Tennessee to keep AND bear long arms for all lawful purposes?
Wannabe rulers want to rule…
The very soil that is Tennessee today sustained and brought forth a breed of men, nationally known for their fierce independence and love for Liberty, to the point of being first in line to step up when tyrants threatened to remove that “precious jewel”.1
From John Sevier and the Overmountain Men who opposed Ferguson and his Torries at King’s Mountain in 17802, the Volunteers who followed Col. Jackson to Horseshoe Bend to stop the Red Sticks from stealing property and taking life as allies of the British, then on to New Orleans in 18143, Crockett and Houston in the Battles of The Alamo and San Jacinto in Texas in 1836, the men who fought back against the Sheriff and the Machine in Athens in 19464 Tennessee has long been known for insurrection against tyrants (successful insurrection is later labeled as Revolution) by use of force with firearms, rifles in particular.
Scalia told us in Heller:
“But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table.” - District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 636 (2008)
The promotion of “safety” is not a reason to deny constitutional rights; I don’t care what the name of your “Department” is. Unless as a division of government you intend to insert that government into being civilly, criminally and monetarily responsible for the production of safety for all individuals, “dressing mules up as horses” is a false act that bears no good for the People. Elisabeth Stroecker, Director of Legislative Affairs and now General Council for the Tennessee Department of Safety can testify before the legislature that her job (and that of the Department) is to “protect the Tennesseans of Tennessee” but it is not so.
If you are killed in a car wreck on a Tennessee highway, does your family get to be recompensed by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (State Police arm of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security)? if you are robbed by illegal immigrants, your daughter raped, your teeth knocked out in a violent assault can you seek reparations from your Sheriff, City Police or the TBI?
The answer is you are on your own, each of us is our own first responder. The old saw that police are minutes away when seconds count is true no matter how you slice it or paint it up to be something other than it really is. The Police would not carry chalk and crime scene tape otherwise…
The Supreme Court of the United States in 2008 referenced a Tennessee State Supreme Court case 50 Tenn., at 187 (1871) in quoting in its treatment of the Second Amendment:
“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)
From that same 19th Century court ruling we find the Tennessee Court saying:
"Bearing arms for the common defense may well be held to be a political right, or for the protection and maintenance of such rights, intended to be guaranteed; but the right to keep them, with all that is implied fairly as an incident to this right, is a private individual right, guaranteed to the citizen, not the soldier…[W]e would hold, that the rifle of all descriptions, the shot gun, the musket, and repeater, are such arms; and that under the Constitution the right to keep such arms, cannot be infringed or forbidden by the Legislature.” - Andrews v. State, 50 Tenn. 165, 181 (1871).
And yet, the afore mentioned Ms. Stroecker testified that handguns are sufficient for self-defense in Tennessee.
She and her Department are not responsible for your safety, but she uses it (safety) as a reason to deny what we all know are preexisting, natural rights to the People in direct conflict to the orders of SCOTUS. Using taxpayer funds under color of Official employment to lobby the legislature against restoration of enumerated rights is just wrong on so many levels.
Every state that borders Tennessee allows it citizens to carry long arms for lawful purposes. Tennessee is one of only seven states that makes it a crime to do so. It was lawful in Tennessee from 1796 till 1989, when the Democrat House, Seante and Governor chose to infringe the right of the People to bear long arms for lawful purposes.
The Bruen Court makes this statement:
“From Heller “For example, we found it "fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 'dangerous and unusual weapons' that the Second Amendment protects the possession and use of weapons that are ”in common use at the time."” New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, No. 20-843, 18 (U.S. Jun. 23, 2022)
Rifles and shotguns are very much in hand by the People in Tennessee, they are in fact “in common use”, but, why pay attention as government to that order from the Court, when you can, as a state, make it a crime to carry ANY firearm for any reason, anytime, anywhere as evidenced by this Jim Crow statute supported by our Republican Supermajority:
TCA 39-17-1307. Unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon. (a) (1) A person commits an offense who carries, with the intent to go armed, a firearm or a club.
The state will sell you a defense, offer you exemptions and exceptions but they intend to keep the crime in place in their statutory scheme to keep control!
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” - Patrich Henry, speech at Virginia Constitutional Ratifying Convention June 5, 1788
When can we tell them to pound sand? They are trying to rule under Color of Law and not Rule of Law.
Is that not the very definition of Tyranny?????