On Tuesday, I wrote about how Tennessee lawmakers issued a warning to Memphis. The city wanted to put a gun control referendum on the ballot in November, asking whether or not the voters wanted the city to pass local gun control laws including an assault weapon ban and a ban on so-called ghost guns. This was despite the fact that Tennessee has preemption, meaning no matter what people voted for, the city couldn’t oblige.
State officials warned that Memphis could see the state withhold sales tax revenue if they went forward with their plan.
There was never much chance that local officials cared that much for gun control that they’d forego their revenue stream, but I didn’t think they’d cave this quickly.
The Shelby County Election Commission has removed its gun-control referendum from the November ballot.
This decision was made Tuesday by the Commission after they decided they are going to follow the instructions of state election coordinator Mark Goins.
This comes one day after House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally said the City of Memphis could lose its share of state sales tax revenue over its efforts to “take a shot” at Tennessee’s gun laws.
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While speaking with WREG, city councilman Dr. Jeff Warren said he’d hoped that the state would understand why the referendum was suggested.
“The citizens need the opportunity to be able to speak and hopefully our legislators will say, ‘Oh, we can help them. We see that things are different in Memphis than they are in other parts of the state,” Warren said. “And as part of the state of Tennessee, we depend on them to help us out.”
The problem is that when it comes to what rights people possess, Memphis isn’t different than other parts of the state. Further, the citizens of Memphis have the right to speak. Freedom of speech is a thing in Tennessee. What Warren needs to understand is that just because people in Memphis think a certain thing, that doesn’t mean everyone else in the state needs to jump.
What’s more, local gun control has never been shown to accomplish anything except allow politicians to look like they’re addressing crime without actually, you know, addressing crime. It’s a mask soft-on-crime lawmakers like to wear to pretend they’re actually doing something.
And preemption means they can’t wear that mask. It means they either have to allow crime to run roughshod over the city or they have to do something about it. They can’t disarm people and ban certain rather popular models of firearms simply because it makes them feel funny inside.
They have to do the work, and in Memphis, it’s clear they don’t want to.
Well, suck it up, Buttercup and put on your big boy/girl pants and get to work, because the rest of the state has no obligation to restrict their rights just because you don’t want to do your jobs. Yes, that includes laws that only apply in Memphis because people visit other cities in their home state.
Crime is a problem, but it would still be a problem if guns disappeared tomorrow. Failing to address crime isn’t because Memphis can’t restrict guns, and the state let them know that their current shenanigans weren’t welcome.
I’m glad to see it.
