For mmediate Release

2/20/14
TN House Votes Down LegisIation To Fix "Guns-In-
Trunks" LegaI Issues
Pody Amendment To HB1405 KiIIed By 45 LegisIators
NashviIIe, TN - This morning the Tennessee General Assembly voted to kill an
amendment by Representative Mark Pody (R) designed to fix the legal issues in the
poorly written 2013 "Guns-n-Trunks" law. The amendment to HB1405 would have
protected law abiding citizens who legally commute with a firearm from being terminated
by their employer, or prosecuted by the government for lawfully keeping a firearm
secured in their vehicle while at work.
"t is amazing how many legislators either voted against, or refused to vote for,
legislation protecting jobs for law abiding citizens" said John Harris of the Tennessee
Firearms Association. "Although 45 Representatives voted against the amendment,
another 16 in the chamber refused to vote at all. The voters who care about the Second
Amendment are likely to remember this vote as we approach election season and we
will do what we can to remind those voters in each of those districts."
Representative Pody offered an amendment, which was the identical text of his bill, HB
1667, on to the floor vote of Representative McCormick's bill HB1405. Rep Pody's co-
sponsor in the Senate, Senator Mae Beavers, attempted the same maneuver when this
bill was up for a Senate floor vote.
The text of Rep Pody's amendment can be found here:
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/108/Amend/HA0610.pdf
An affirmative vote was a vote to kill (table) the amendment.
The foIIowing Representatives voted against gun rights by voting "AYE" to tabIe
the amendment:
Paul Bailey
Dale Carr
Mike Carter
Glen Casada
Jim Coley
Vince Dean
Vance Dennis
Jeremy Faison
Andrew Farmer
JoAnne Favors
John Forgety
Curtis Halford
Michael Harrison
Ryan Haynes
Andy Holt
Darren Jernigan
Curtis Johnson
Gloria Johnson
Sherry Jones
William Lamberth
Mary Littleton
Jon Lundberg
Pat Marsh
Gerald McCormick
Steve McDaniel
Larry Miller
Gary Odom
Antonio Parkinson
Joe Pitts
Dennis Powers
Bob Ramsey
Barrett Rich
Dennis Roach
Bill Sanderson
Cameron Sexton
David Shepard
Tony Shipley
Billy Spivey
Mike Stewart
Art Swann
John Tidwell
Ron Travis
Dawn White
Mark White
Beth Harwell
The foIIowing IegisIators faiIed to vote on the amendment, even though they were
present:
Raumesh Akbari
Joe Armstrong
Harry Brooks
Sheila Butt
Karen Camper
Barbara Cooper
Craig Fitzhugh
Brenda Gilmore
Harold Love
Susan Lynn
Bo Mitchell
John Ragan
Charles Sargent
Johnny Shaw
Ryan Williams
Tim Wirgau
Had those standing by voted NO on the amendment then the entire House would have
had a chance to debate the merits of the amendment - something leadership apparently
did not want to happen.
Video of the amendment floor vote can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyegmVN7598&feature=youtu.be
BACKGROUND:
Current law does not protect employees from criminal prosecution or from losing their
jobs if their vehicle contains an item they lawfully possess, especially a firearm. The
Tennessee Attorney General issued an Opinion (13-41) noting that the Ramsey
"parking lot" law of 2013 did not actually protect an individual who was in lawful
possession of a firearm from criminal prosecution or termination of employment.
Ramsey continues to argue that it did.
Recently, Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey's office directed legislative staff lawyers to
manufacture a legal opinion that came to the opposite conclusion from that of the State
Attorney General. The opinion from the Lieutenant Governor's staff lawyers is faulty
because testimony of the bill sponsor, Rep. Jeremy Faison, completely disagrees with
their conclusion. During testimony last year, Representative Jeremy Faison stated that
the bill does not protect employees from termination or criminal prosecution, and that it
was not the intent of the bill to do so.
Even though the Tennessee Firearms Association discounts the opinion issued by
Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey's lawyers, the fact that two divergent legal opinions
exist on the Ramsey sponsored 2013 law shows that confusion in the law must be
removed.
While this motion by Senator Beavers to offer a floor amendment to a bill is rarely done,
it was necessary due to an alleged embargo by Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey on
firearms related bills that Senator Beavers has sponsored this year. House leadership
has indicated that Lieutenant Governor Ramsey has issued an unwritten moratorium
against any firearms bills by Senator Beavers reaching the Senate floor for a vote,
regardless of the merit of her bills.
Ten amendments were offered in 2013 to address the numerous and serious flaws in
Ron Ramsey's landmark attempt to "solve" the debate over whether employees could
safely commute to work and leave their firearms in their cars. However, Republican
leadership worked hard to prohibited any of those bills from being debated, much less
passing, in 2013. Significantly, the intentional and public defeat of those amendments
demonstrate that Republican leadership knew problems existed and wanted the
Ramsey 2013 legislation enacted into law with no restrictions on the ability of employers
to fire employees who otherwise legally stored firearms in their vehicles.
The Tennessee Firearms Association was founded in 1995 and formed to defend the
right to keep and bear arms and to educate the citizenry on the responsible use,
ownership and carrying of firearms. The TFA is Tennessee's only no-compromise gun
group.
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