Friday, February 20, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Where's Rob Briley When You Need Him? Mike Stewart Flunks First Test in State House
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 5:01 AM
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Q: How's Mike Stewart working out so far as Rob Briley's replacement in the state House? A: Great, if you're satisfied with a representative who won't stand up to the state's Second Amendment freaks.
Yesterday, as a slew of absurd gun bills went winging out of a so-called legislative study committee, Stewart sat in timid silence. His only contribution? He meekly suggested a 9 p.m. curfew on toting guns into Tennessee saloons. The committee made it 11 o'clock and sent the infamous guns-in-saloons bill on its merry way.
So presumably an hour before midnight every night in roadhouses all across this great state, the barkeep will fire his gun into the air and demand that all patrons place their arsenal of weaponry on the bar until closing time. It'll be like Wyatt Earp has arrived to clean up the town. I feel better already about this legislation.
Also on the committee's "recommended" list is a bill allowing handgun permit holders to carry pistols into state and local parks to fend off vicious wildlife and criminals lurking in the bushes. Never mind those children playing on the gym set. Under the bill, even if city and county governments object to this, they couldn't restrict handguns in their parks. Another bill would close the state's list of permit holders to public view. That way, we can't tell whether the Safety Department is following the law by conducting background checks on these people so violent felons aren't packing heat. The bill would also penalize publication of the names, should an enterprising reporter come into possession of them somehow. That sounds suspiciously like prior restraint to me, but what do I know?
OK Briley's gone and that's a good thing. But damn if Pith didn't miss him yesterday. He was crafty and vociferous in his opposition to these nutty gun bills. If he had been on this study committee, he would have spoken out against them and might have figured out a way to muck things up somehow. The panel didn't possess the authority to kill the bills but didn't have to put its stamp of approval on any, either. Stewart mumbled something about his "respect for the work of the committee" and said he didn't necessarily intend to vote for these bills once they come up in the Judiciary Committee. But he said his "inclination is to recommend all these so they can go through the committee process." That's a copout.
Update: The Commercial Appeal editorializes. "A fast track to a bad policy: Making it easier to bring firearms to places where families gather defies common sense."
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