Gun bills backfire, Republicans meet in secret and more
Gun bills backfiring
It looks like the legislature's Republican majority has created a fine little mess for itself by enacting all those gun laws.
All across Tennessee, bar and restaurant owners are slapping up signs to ban guns. Starting this summer, visitors to Beale Street will have to go through some kind of screening process to make sure they're unarmed. The Tennessee Hospitality Association says more than 80 percent of its members are banning guns.
"We still haven't been able to figure out the problem that existed that caused the need for this legislation," the association's Walt Baker says.
But Pith always thought the guns-in-parks law was the one that would really backfire on Republicans. It's one thing to endanger the lives of drunks and barflies. It's another when families don't feel safe anymore at their city park because a few assclowns insist on striding around with guns on their hips. Local governments are rushing to opt out of that law, and everyone's wondering what exactly lawmakers were thinking when they passed it.
In Murfreesboro, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is threatening to hold Spring Fling somewhere else unless the council bans guns in parks. The weeklong high school sports tournaments bring more than $3 million in tourist dollars into the city. Also in Murfreesboro, they're worried about whether guns in parks might violate Little League baseball's safety policy.
Says one former ump: "If [Murfreesboro Little League organization] Optimist has to cut its Little League affiliation because of this stupid law, every Murfreesboro council member and legislator in Tennessee should be required to line up and get whacked in the head by a 12-year-old with a Little League-approved bat. Those are the only weapons that should be allowed in a ball park." JEFF WOODS
The mark of Thompson
In NPR coverage of the Supreme Court's big Ricci decision, Nina Totenberg includes a sound bite from University of Washington law professor Eric Schnapper: "This case could be the Fred Thompson of the court's term: much anticipated but quickly forgotten."
Ouch.
The metaphorical possibilities here are vast. Sarah Palin was the Fred Thompson of VP candidacies. The Titans 2008 playoff run was the Fred Thompson of NFL postseasons. My third wife was the Fred Thompson of romantic relationships. This story is the Fred Thompson of Pith... BRUCE BARRY
Cammack won't quit Belle Meade
A defiant Ward Cammack said today he won't quit the lily-white Belle Meade Country Club and and denied a Pith report that Democratic donors are refusing to give to his gubernatorial campaign because he belongs.
"I belong and I'm not going to quit," Cammack told Pith.
Quitting is "sort of the thing to do and I've never fully appreciated it because you know we all have different constituencies of people we may hang out with or are a part of, and I don't see any reason for me to turn my back on anybody, including the employees there," an apparent reference to the black waiters who serve the secretive club's members.
A painting of Robert E. Lee hangs over the fireplace in the foyer of the club, which historically excluded blacks but does now have at least one black member, an attorney who lives in Atlanta and only makes the four-hour trek once or twice a year.
"Nobody has said anything to me about it," says Cammack. "No donors, no supporters, nobody. It's the first I've heard of it."
Of his fundraising, he said, "It's hard. It's hard work" but he wouldn't say how much his campaign has received. He added: "I will say your sources are interesting and frenetic." Jeff Woods
Wacky Rutherford County
Those wacky Rutherford County Republicans are at it again. They only just took control of the election commission, and already they're holding secret meetings and calling the cops to toss reporters out on the street.
It got so testy last week that Murfreesboro Post publisher Mike Pirtle and Daily News Journal editor Jimmy Hart showed up to hand commission chair Tom Walker a copy of the state's Sunshine Law. From the Post:
"Walker was informed it is against state law to close a public meeting. He was then offered a copy of the Sunshine Law, which he declined, claiming he does not care what the law is and is just trying to protect the applicants by closing the meeting. State law says "the formation of public policy and decisions is public business and shall not be conducted in secret."
"We've got some crazy laws in this country," Republican Commissioner Doris Jones responded. JEFF WOODS
Comments (21)
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Regarding the new park gun laws, I see absolutely nothing wrong with carrying a weapon. The police and park rangers do a fine job, but if they are not on the spot when something bad happens I would appreciate a citizen with a weapon there.
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Great! This is awesome! The restaurant owners are making their own choice regarding whether or not people should be allowed to have guns in the restaurants! Since you know, before it was completely illegal - the government had gone so far as to say what people could and couldn't do in.. a... restaurant!! So here you go, now the restaurant owners have the RIGHT to do as they please regarding the manner of which THEY decide to handle guns. Why is this bad? Why are so many people trying to paint it in such a horrible light? Give people freedoms and everyone screams bloody murder, scare them into the Patriot Act and everyone thinks it's for "liberty!" Morons.
Nah, it couldn't be the TSSAA having a knee jerk reaction to a law that actually acknowledges the inherent right of law abiding citizens to possess the means to protect themselves. It's those "evil" Republicans. :rolleyes: I'm four-square FOR these types of gun laws. Get it right! The police CAN'T be there every time you get attacked. Your safety is YOUR responsibility. An armed society is a polite society. Just you watch, the places that will have crimes in the future won't be because of these "relaxed" gun laws. They'll be because of criminals violating the laws.. You know, the ones they ignored anyway.
I agree that it is our right to carry. That is why all the background checks and classes we go thru. There is a simple answer to fix these resturants and get them to change their minds. It must be followed by everyone to work. That is simpley boycott anyone who does not want you to carry. After all there are a lot of gun owners which spend money so they need to spend their money with a buisness who supports their rights. They tried restricting our rights at sevral places here and once they saw the drop in what they made they changed their minds. This needs to be done everywhere. If gun owners don't stand up for themselves and their rights they will find themselves without them.
I have never read anything on the Nashville Scene before today. After today, I will never read anything again. Liberal bias at its best (or should I say worse).
Wow...The NRA has obviously pulled their membership together quickly. It's just what I want...bar fisticuffs turning into bar gunfights. Pissed off parents shooting the umpire at their little league games instead of simply shouting asinine insults. So...armed societies are polite societies? Why is our society so rude while Japanese society and British society are so steeped in manners and politeness? "Polite society" means those with the guns make the rules for politeness. That's called bullying where I come from.
Brian, you are an idiot. How do I know? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html We are so terrible here and england is so much better aren't they. Your wrong, just admit your wrong. Their gun bans have done nothing except INCREASE crime. Imagine how that works. Hey Nashville Scene, you could learn a lot from facts. You know, things the rest of us make decisions from. The fact is, there is a higher crime rate in a place with no guns. I can see why no one cares about your "news."
Let me get this right, The TN Restaurant Association the writer are now concerned about protecting the lives of patrons and Tennesseans as "a few assclowns insist on striding around with guns on their hips" according to he writer from the Tennessean. Obviously there is some confusion, allow me inform, anyone who is carrying a weapon with a TN carry permit has gone through a vigorous background check, attended and passed a class for instruction and shooting skills, all before obtaining the permit to carry a legal weapon.So everyone is a law abiding citizen. Their background is spotless. On the other hand, can the same exemplary background be said about the patrons sitting in these same restaurants drinking even three drinks? Three drinks can easily put someone over the limit to legally drive. Who is stopping this drunken patron from driving a 3,000 lb. weapon down the road with dulled senses? Is the TN Restaurant Association checking the background to see if these drinkers have past DUI convictions? We all know, more people are killed due to DUI than any other criminal activity. As a matter of fact, there is not one example of a Legal Gun Carry Permit Holder shooting or killing someone illegally. Who would you rather have as your patron, a legal law abiding gun toter or a multiple DUI offender driving after leaving the bar without being checked? I know who I trust most.
Just as it is my right to carry a concealed firearm in accordance with current Tennessee law, it is the right of a convience proproprietor to post on his or her door their objection to my right. Therefore, it would be illeagal for me to "carry" on their property. Problem solved. However, it is the criminal that does not concern themselve with the laws that is going to carry no matter the law. It is this crimanal element that has the intentition of doing harm. Not the law abiding citizen. If a person feels unsafe entering a place where they know firearms are allowed, do not enter. That is how simple it is.
I breathe a little sigh of relief realizing there are some folks and organizations who see the insanity and danger of these new gun laws. I have been thinking of starting a charitable foundation that would provide bullet proof vests for children so that families may continue to eat dinner at O'Charleys with less fear of stray bullets taking out families. Or that children may be able to still visit public parks. If the adults in Tennessee are not bright enough to realize just how crazy this all is and demand their legislature to repeal this downright stupid law then they probably are not fit to raise children anyway and they can fin for themselves. I am sure a lot of Tennesseans are hoping that freak in Alaska ends up president and then Tennessee can legalize shooting from helicopters.
Tennessee ranks number 11 in deaths by firearms stats and that is without these new laws. States with strictest gun control laws, such as New York, rank at the bottom. But guns don't kill people, ignorant, uneducated, white trash rednecks from Tennessee, with guns kill people. Tennessee is so predictable that it is laughable. The few sane folks who live there must feel like they did something in a past life to deserve it. I know I did when I lived there. What a hell hole.
"Tennessee ranks number 11 in deaths by firearms stats and that is without these new laws. States with strictest gun control laws, such as New York, rank at the bottom." Can you give us a credible cite to back your hoplophobic claim?
"Tennessee ranks number 11 in deaths by firearms stats and that is without these new laws. States with strictest gun control laws, such as New York, rank at the bottom." Can you give us a credible cite to back your hoplophobic claim? Duh, anyone ever told you about Google? Let me save you from racking your pea sized brain,(I am sure it took all that was in their just to learn to spell hoplophobic) and give you a link, its the first thing that pops up under a good search. http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000 But its just Tennesseans that will be taking each other down under these new laws and being that most people who are shot know their assailant personally the people who will suffer most from this are no real loss anyway.
Guns don't kill people.. People ( carrying illegal guns, with murderous intent) kill people. as what was tragically seen last nite when Steve McNair was found murdered in an apartment in Nashville. I have a Licensed carry permit and know a LOT of other Carry permit holders.. NON of us have murdered anyone and some of us have actually saved our own lives and those of our Familys with our LEGAL guns. No we don't have firefights in restaurants and bars or parks; although while walking with my family I did scare off a large Black Bear while walking the Appalachian trail. I also saved my own life while driving a cab in Dayton Ohio ( Nights ) while going to University with my LEGAL Gun.. ( this was before the Canadian Govt. Illegalized guns.. and where the crime rate has skyrocketed. When guns are outlawed.. only outlaws will have guns. ( I know the saying has been worn out.. But it is TRUE! I am NRA and I VOTE! Sarah J.
If banning guns lowers death rates why is D.C. the #1 in homicide rate per 100,000?
Story Says one former ump: "If [Murfreesboro Little League organization] Optimist has to cut its Little League affiliation because of this stupid law, every Murfreesboro council member and legislator in Tennessee should be required to line up and get whacked in the head by a 12-year-old with a Little League-approved bat. Those are the only weapons that should be allowed in a ball park." JEFF WOODS with an umpire with this attitude, I suddenly feel the need to have a gun on my hip!!!!!
2nd Amendment folks. It's MY right to carry and protect myself. Get over yourselves. You don't want guns and want NO ONE having them. We want guns, but aren't making YOU carry them, are we? Under your anti-gun laws, the criminals and cops will be all that is armed. There's more criminals than cops. Guess who's in charge. As for the "guns in bars", I would like to see any bar/restaurant that says "no guns here" have to GIVE UP any they may have for THEIR protection. Are they better than me? Do they DESERVE protection but I do not? Get over yourselves. Guns are Tennessee heritage and should remain so. Concerned
Could one of you "enlightened" bloggers help me to understand why the city of Kennesaw, Georgia's gun crime rate is so low? Hmmm? http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n15_v46/ai_15729634/ It must just be pure dumbASS luck that the whole town hasn't blown themselves to smithereens by now. If people want to hurt other people there will always be a way to do it. I don't really understand why a properly registered hand gun owner is such a threat to anyone. And as far as park safety is concerned, in the park near my house in Clarksville there were always drug dealers trading guns and drugs down there- nobody that we should be concerned about, right?
Since municipal govts.seek to create “GUN FREE ZONES”(only law abiding),I ASSUME local Police& Park Police will provide high coverage since parks,can be remote. Otherwise,the first HCP Holder assaulted/killed will have automatic lawsuit &“local yokels” cannot plead immunity; they “disarmed” HCP vetted by Fed.& State govts.
It is so disturbing for legislatores inspite of all shottings in Nashville to approve such a stupid proposition on gunlaws. I am so scared of stepping out of my room with all the guns in the streets of Nashville and the house is approving guns in the parks and restaurants? Tennesseans need to march on the streets against such senseless decisions by the house. Should we control guns or liberate them? what are the rights of the innocents who die everyday because of liberal gun laws. We need to vote out those legislators who passed that law. I won't enter any restaurant that permits guns. Please make our city safe.
"It is so disturbing for legislatores inspite of all shottings in Nashville" How many of those shootings were by state and federal vetted handgun permitted citizens? "I am so scared of stepping out of my room with all the guns in the streets of Nashville" Sounds like you need to move to a better neighborhood. "Tennesseans need to march on the streets against such senseless decisions by the house." You don't believe in democracy? "Should we control guns or liberate them? what are the rights of the innocents who die everyday because of liberal gun laws." What of the rights of the innocent who die every day because of liberal imposed gun laws? Gun laws only disarm the law abiding and not the criminal. "We need to vote out those legislators who passed that law." Go ahead it is your right to try. "I won't enter any restaurant that permits guns." I won't enter a restaurant or establishment that bans them. "Please make our city safe." Yes by making the criminal worry that his intended victim may be armed.
