Posted on 03/20/2008 7:49:12 AM PDT by SmithL
NASHVILLE - State House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh attended a subcommittee session Wednesday to shoot down bills allowing holders of handgun carry permits to take their weapons to bars, state parks and college campuses.
Taking advantage of House rules that allow the speaker to vote on any House panel, Naifeh cast a deciding "no" vote on the three measures.
Normally, the Criminal Practice Subcommittee has five members, with three yes votes required for passage of a bill. With Naifeh on hand, four votes were necessary for a majority.
The defeated measures were:
n A bill by Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, to allow permit holders to take their guns into establishments that serve alcoholic beverages, provided they do not drink themselves. The bill, HB410, failed on a 3-3 tie vote.
n A similar measure, HB702, by Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, was postponed. McCord and Rep. Rob Briley, D-Nashville, agreed to try and negotiate a compromise version of the legislation. Briley voted no on Todd's bill.
n A bill by Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, that would have allowed permit holders to carry guns on college and university campuses. The bill, HB3014, got three no votes and two yes votes, with Rep. Eddie Bass, D-Prospect, abstaining.
n A bill by Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, authorizing guns to be taken into state parks, which is now prohibited. Jim Fyke, commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation, appeared before the panel to oppose the bill. It failed on a 3-3 tie vote.
Naifeh made few comments during debate on the proposals. Afterward, Naifeh cited a letter sent to lawmakers by the Tennessee Public Safety Coalition, a statewide group made up of sheriffs, police chiefs and district attorneys general.
The letter primarily deals with the group's opposition to allowing guns in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol but also declares general opposition to any expansion of handgun carry laws.
"We believe the existing handgun permit law strikes a very good balance and should not be altered," states the March 11 letter. Among those signing it was Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols.
Joining Naifeh and Briley in voting consistently against the bills was Rep. Janis Sontany, D-Nashville. Voting yes on all three bills were Reps. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and Eric Watson, R-Cleveland. Bass voted yes on two measures while abstaining on the Campfield bill.
Proponents of the bills say the 180,000 Tennesseans who hold handgun carry permits have proven themselves to be law-abiding citizens who can be trusted to carry their weapons in places where they are now forbidden.
"If we trust them to carry it at Wal-Mart, why not at our state parks?" asked Niceley.
Campfield said his bill could provide protection to college and university students and staff who are now defenseless if faced with "a crazed killer" like what occurred at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech. Even security guards are forbidden to carry guns on some two-year college campuses, he said.
Campfield said he would attempt passage of the legislation next year and predicted that a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., could impact the measure.
As things stand now, he said, Tennessee college campuses are essentially the same as the District of Columbia - no guns allowed. If the court strikes down the Washington ban, campus gun bans also could be suspect, he said.
The House Republican Caucus issued a news release after the subcommittee meeting to criticize "the Democratic leadership's brazenly political efforts to scuttle common-sense rights for gun owners."
Naifeh said he viewed the issue as a matter of policy, not politics.
"I just don't feel that carrying firearms into places that serve alcohol is an appropriate thing to do," he said.
Asked about Campfield's bill, Naifeh said, "I could say something real smart about him, but there's no need to."
What kind of name is this?
Believe...no facts. Just feeeeeeeeeling.
Feeeeeeeeelings
ping
Found an interesting post on Naifeh
Seems he’s the consummate greasy, work the rules type of politician we’d all like to tar and feather. Color me surprised. At least he’s in touch with his feeeeellllings... (snort) the big hairy pu$$y.
http://lastcar.blogspot.com/2005/04/naifeh-cheats-system_27.html
“State House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh attended a subcommittee session Wednesday to shoot down bills allowing holders of handgun carry permits to take their weapons to bars, state parks and college campuses.”
I’m thinking it’d be ironic if an unarmed Naifeh was gunned down on a college campus, in a bar, or in a state park. Poetic justice, you know.
People should be allowed to defend themselves wherever they happen to be. The criminals could care less about legalities.
“The criminals could care less about legalities.”
er, “could not care less”. Sorry.
Naifeh always has his hand in anything and everything illegal or wrong in Tennessee. He has appointed some of the most corrupt and arrogant beaurocrats in this state.
Dang. Just dang.
I love the way you think! I have been known to tell a few anti-gun leftists "Don't worry, I would never draw my weapon to save your life."
Don't those fools know that people bent on committing a crime with a gun don't give a flying you know what about their gun laws? If a person is willing to risk the penalty for robbing or killing someone he isn't worried about breaking some stupid gun law that says he can't carry a gun.
Of course they do, but the idea of law abiding citizens carrying guns for their own defense is anathema to officials who see us as sheep and themselves as our caretakers. To them we only exist to pay their salaries by our taxes, vote them into office, and keep our mouths shut about everything else. Kinda like the attitude of King George just before our colonist forefathers kicked his jackbooted thugs' butts back to England.
I hope and pray to God that the SCOTUS throws out the D.C. gun ban and by extension invalidates the clearly unconstitutional gun laws of the rest of the country, but I have about as much hope of that as I do of finding a pot of gold coins buried in my back yard. What is it going to take to get our Constitutional rights restored, another revolution? Given that the mind-numbed robots among us who live by feeding at the government trough will never allow it to happen through the ballot box, it may have to come through the cartridge box if it comes at all and I don't think any of us want that.
The lawyers believe that all rights come from them and the right to protrect yourself and your property is one they do not want to give back to us because it could really mess up thier cash cow down at the courthouses of America. Every time a honest citizen protects themselves by killing a criminal it stops the flow of large sums of money from going through the legal system.
It is an expletive that is uttered as a swear word.
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