Mike Bell

By TIM SINIARD

Despite a tearful plea from the mother of a young man who was killed in 2018 by a gunman at a Nashville restaurant, and over objections from some members of the law enforcement community, Gov. Bill Lees sweeping permitless carry bill advanced out of the state Senates Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

The legislation, which is being shepherded by state Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville), was passed 7-2 and will now move on to the Senate Finance Committee.

Introduced by Gov. Lee last week, Senate Bill 2671 will allow for both open and concealed carrying of handguns for Tennesseans 21 years old and older.

The measure also has stricter penalties for stealing firearms, including increasing incarceration sentences for stealing a gun from a car, providing a handgun to a minor and unlawful possession of a handgun by a felon.

Information provided by the governor's office points to additional components of the "Permitless Carry," which is also known as "Constitutional Carry." As proposed, the legislation includes:

Increases the penalty for theft of a firearm to a felony;

Provides a sentencing enhancement for theft of a firearm from a vehicle;

Increases minimum sentences for theft of a firearm from 30 days to 180 days;

Increases sentences for unlawful possession of a firearm by violent felons and felony drug offenders, possession of a handgun by a felon and unlawfully providing a handgun to a juvenile or allowing a juvenile to possess a handgun.

The bill also contains a provision extending the right to 18 to 20-year-old members of the military.

Those who would want to legally buy a handgun would still have to pass federal background checks, although there are some loopholes to the requirement, according to previously published media reports.

Further details about the governor's legislative proposals are expected to be released soon.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which Bell chairs, heard testimony from those who supported and opposed Lees legislation, among them a grieving mother, and the National Rifle Association state director, as well as members of law enforcement.

Shaundelle Brooks, the mother of Waffle House shooting victim Akilah DaSilva, implored the committee to vote against the bill, stating that he was taken from us and none of our lives will ever be the same.

She told lawmakers it was impossible for them to imagine the pain she feels when your loved one has been murdered until you experience it yourself.

My son was a beautiful soul, Brooks said.

DaSilva, 23, a student at Middle Tennessee State University, was shot and killed along with three others on April 22, 2018, by Travis Reinking after the gunman entered the restaurant and fired several shots from a Bushmaster AR-15.

While living in Illinois, Reinking had had his gun license revoked; however, it was later learned that his father had handed his gun back to his son, the same one used during the mass shooting at the Waffle House.

The father, Jeffrey Reinking, was charged last year with unlawful delivery of a firearm.

Since her sons murder, Brooks said she has learned a great deal about gun violence in the United States.

I have studied data, she said as her voice broke. I've also dedicated my life to doing what I can to prevent another family from suffering the way my family has suffered and to prevent another mother from having to bury a child and wake up every day with a broken heart.

Judiciary Vice Chairman Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) expressed his condolences to Brooks.

I will tell you that I think every every member of this committee feels for you, he said. Thank you.

Following Brooks was Matt Herriman, state director for the National Rifle Association, who said he believed that citizens do not need the government's permission to exercise a right, given to them by the Constitution.

Today, Tennessee's current system is set up as a privilege, not a right, he said.

Herriman said the bill would not result in increased crime, "especially murders with a handgun."

He said the legislation being considered by the committee is for law-abiding Tennesseans, not criminals.

Criminals already carried concealed firearms without regard for the law, Herriman said. This legislation is not for those people. It simply puts law-abiding Tennesseans on equal footing. This bill contains stiff penalties for those criminals who choose to unlawfully possess or steal a firearm. These are the people that we need to target, not law-abiding citizens.

But Brentwood Chief of Police Jeff Hughes, who was accompanied by Maggi Duncan, executive director of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, opposed the legislation.

He said those in law enforcement are generally pro-Second Amendment, but with some reservations, particularly when the safety of officers is concerned.

"This simply raises concerns," Hughes said of the legislation, "particularly as it relates to the safety of our officers that are on the street. I'm personally concerned about my officers that are out there on the street trying to ascertain whether someone is legally carrying or not legally carrying, and the jeopardy that that might put them in while they're trying to make that determination.

Hughes said making such determinations would place a burden on law enforcement officers.

Duncan said the new proposal would also end the state's ability to deny permits to those with mental instabilities.

Last year for Tennessee alone, there were over 53,000 denials from mental defects, she said. And that would be a large concern for us because you're not just protecting your law enforcement officer, we're also trying to protect the rest of the community.

Bell responded he had many friends in the law enforcement community who lay their lives on the line every single day in the United States.

But this is what I want to say gently, Bell said. Law enforcement has opposed every expansion of Second-Amendment rights that the Legislature has passed since we enacted permit carry in 1995 every one of them.

He said the law enforcement community in Tennessee does not have the same perspective regarding the Second Amendment as a right for all citizens.

I love our law enforcement, he said. But they have a perspective and a focus that does not take into account every time, what is in my opinion not just the best thing for the citizens, but what is true and right and in line with our Second-Amendment constitutional rights.

Continued here:

'Permitless Carry' legislation advances in Senate - Cleveland Daily Banner