Despite calls not to, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has called a Special Session with the obvious purpose of pursuing his Red Flag agenda and other gun control measures.

In April 2023, Governor Bill Lee circulated a proposed Red Flag law, which he refers to as a “temporary mental health order of protection,” solely to rebrand it and confuse the public and some legislators. However, it is rebranded that proposal, and his goal is to pass a Red Flag law in Tennessee, whether in this special session or in the upcoming regular session.

As of Monday morning, August 21, 2023, the Legislators have filed 102 House Bills, 14 Senate bills, 24 House Joint Resolutions, 74 Senate Joint Resolutions, and 10 House Resolutions. Of the proposed bills, many of them have broad captions, and many of them can be amended to do things entirely different from the language contained in the bodies of the original bills.

Thus, the risk for a Red Flag law remains present – particularly when that has been the primary goal of Bill Lee and several Legislators (including the Lt. Governor) since April 2023.

A review of these bills that have been filed, particularly in light of the extremely broad captions on some bills, shows that Tennesseans are presently at risk for all manner of shenanigans.

Not only is there the opportunity that Red Flag (also known as “extreme risk” legislation) possible, there are many other bills that address things like safe storage requirements, establishing expanded categories of prohibited persons, DNA tracking of those who are merely arrested even for non-violent felonies, further denying access of the public to public records, expanding definitions of hate crimes, and a wide range of other topics. Again, the risk is that any of these might be intentional misdirections and that the filed bills could be easily and dangerously amended to do other things – indeed, this is exactly what happened in 2020 when Bill Lee and his legislative conspirators filed the initial harmless bill that was later changed to a 2nd Amendment bill (part of which has been already declared to violate the 2nd Amendment and 14th Amendments and to constitute federal civil rights violations!)

Whether a Red Flag law or other 2nd Amendment violations or even other violations of constitutional rights come out of the special session is not the end of the inquiry. The problem is that Bill Lee and others want Red Flag laws, extreme risk laws, gun storage mandates, and other clear violations of the 2nd Amendment. If they do not get them now, they will continue to pursue them.

What should 2nd Amendment supporters be doing?

1) Don’t go to the Legislature this week – instead call, email and stay in touch with your individual legislators. Demand that NOTHING come out of this special session. Demand that they vote to adjourn and go home. If Bill Lee throws a fit and calls another special session, do it again and keep doing it.

2) Do not be satisfied if a legislator tries to assure you that no Red Flag law and perhaps even no “gun control” will come out of the special session – the only acceptable answer is “no gun control ever on my watch – now or in the future.”

3) Demand that Legislators immediately take up the mandate of the Supreme Court in the Bruen case when they come back in January and that the only acceptable 2nd Amendment issues or public safety issues will be to repeal any and all laws and regulations in Tennessee that did not exist in the plurality of the states at the time the 2nd Amendment was adopted in 1791. Everything else must go.

4) Demand that your Legislators make and support a motion to immediately adjourn the special session. As Senate Caucus Chairman Jack Johnson recently stated, there are constitutional questions about whether the Governor’s callfor a special session meets the constitutional requirements.