TN Legislature Passes Guns-in-parking-lots Bill

Enlarge image

Credit wikimedia.org

Before a Tennessee House vote to give final approval to a contentious firearms bill last week, Speaker Beth Harwell implored her Republican colleagues to ignore demands from what she termed fringe groups to make major changes to the measure.

The chamber took Harwell's advice and passed the guns-in-parking-lots bill with no changes. In recent weeks lawmakers have drawn the line at proposals to bypass the federal government by allowing the creation an independent health care network and stopped a proposal to ban the enforcement of federal firearms laws in Tennessee. The failure of those two bills signals a new willingness among the GOP supermajority to reel in more extreme measures before they reach a floor vote, where lawmakers might have a harder time voting against them.