John Lennon did not write that .
John N might have Welcome.
I'm John Becker. We're glad to e
you on this Sunday morning. Jua,
it's always a good start with that tune.
He's my colleague at WBIR.
With us this morning is a five m
representative in Knoxville andx
County Representative Jason Zac.
Good to have you on the Republican side.
Out of the aisle. Good morning.
Susan Richardson Williams
is on the panel today.
She also is a Republican,
owns her own PR firm and runs t.
Don Bosch is a Democrat,
runs his own law firm.
Good to have both of you.
Good morning, Representative Zachary.
On the table right now,
the governor has said we need
a special session on looking
at tightening gun laws.
Is that a good idea?
Yes or no?
Yeah, I love how we're going
strong out of the gate.
So in terms of a special sessio.
There looks like that may be
toward the end of August just
from what we're hearing. I
think it's a good idea.
No, I don't know. I don't
think it's a good idea and a
couple of different reasons.
One, when we have a piece of
comprehensive piece of legislatn
like what he is possibly going o
put forward based on what we ar,
what we saw toward the end of session,
it literally takes us
months to walk through that.
I mean we do our due diligence .
We're not like Congress.
I mean we actually read the bil,
we walk through the bills and it
takes months to pass something
comprehensive and so it to expet
us to pass anything whether.
Guns or anything related,
that's like it could be a 10 to 15 page bill.
It's just simply not reasonable.
Let me ask you this,
this came out this week.
It's from Vandy.
I'm sure you've seen this poll d
it says if our viewers haven't.
82% of people polled support
Governor Bill Lee's executive
order on gun background checks.
3/4 of voters support a red flag gun law.
He's not calling it that but
that's essentially what the spel
session would be about contrary
to current and and we'll get
into the other ones after that.
But as far as guns?
It says the majority of Tennesss
want to see some change.
You are in the minority in
that according to this poll.
You said red flag loss.
No way, no how
sure. Well, and so I think it's important.
That poll, if I remember correc,
I looked at it earlier in the w,
it's a small sample size.
It's about 1000 people and I
feel like most Vanderbilt polls,
it doesn't reflect the constituency of
Tennessee because if you simply look at the,
at the the body that I represen,
there's 99 members,
75 Republicans and the majority of my.
Constituents that are reaching t
to me do not want red flag laws
or orders of protection there.
They think there are steps
that should be taken.
We need to take additional steps
related to mental health to ense
people that have significant mel
health issues cannot possess gu.
I think most reasonable
people can agree on that.
Let me
just stop you right there.
Wouldn't a red flag law assist n
getting those guns out of peopls
hands that have mental health
issues that they're already the?
A red flag law does not preserve
process and it does not preserve
Second Amendment rights based i.
Is not based on what most of
the red flag laws I have seen
in states that have passed.
Florida's another one that
passed it after Parkland,
FL has had over 9000 petitions
filed and only 1% of what the
governor says we'll talk about
this one does have due process.
I mean the the person the subjet
of the of the hearing is there.
He'd be there or she would
and it's just the unfair
rhetoric that comes out of this.
I don't want to monopolize this topic.
I do have more to ask you about
on that, but I didn't mean to so
so I just want
to be clear time necessary to
debate these issues aside.
Is there any kind of legislatiou
see that needs to be done furtho
address the fact that well, for example.
Guns are the number one reason
why I've got kids dying.
I mean, aside from grownups,
that statistic has emerged
in the last couple years.
Does that bother you enough thau
think there ought to be some kif
legislation to help maybe stop ?
Well, I think we have to
address the core issue.
So what is driving people
to to take these evil acts,
to take these evil steps?
And so we look at mental health
is obviously a primary driver.
There's nothing we can do to legislate
the evil that drives people to do this.
We can pass laws with
significant consequences.
But I think there are certainly steps.
That we need to take one of thoo
strengthen our background check system.
That's something we talked abou.
One of the things we talked abot
toward the end of session was
anyone that that makes a direct,
credible threat that is an immit
threat toward any kind of mass shooting
or direct threat there should b.
Sections within code that are ad
to code that address that and ge
the opportunity for involuntary
committal for some of those peo.
I mean there's certainly steps t
we need to take that the additi,
the additional one is right nown
code there's a gap with adolesc,
those under 18,
if they are adjudicated mentally
defective right now.
When they turn 18,
it basically wipes the record cr
and they're allowed to possess a gun.
Actually had a bill filed a bilo
address that toward the end of session.
So there and then there's also
39171307 in TCA that says if you
were adjudicated mentally defec,
you cannot possess a weapon.
That's on on the books today.
But there's a small loophole
within that that we need to fix.
So there are certainly steps
we need to take but we got to
address the core issue.
Critics
would push back on the mental
health question not in that's
a good idea but saying listen
Tennessee Republicans have left.
Billions of dollars of federal y
on the table in the last decade,
and failing to take that as
hurt the state of Tennessee in
shoring up its mental health
in relation to what?
Funding it funding. Funding more
resources for mental health?
We've said no as a state to billions of
dollars from the federal govern.
Related to mental health specifically,
when have we rejected will health care,
health care decided by the state? Are
you talking about Medicaid expansion?
Yes, that. So yeah.
So Medicaid expansion, we relat.
I was on the Medicaid subcommit,
the 10 care subcommittee
related specifically to that.
We actually have seen the Medicd
rolls increased substantially
from up roughly 2012 into 2016.
Then we had to restart the
reverification process.
They increased by about 400,000.
Then during COVID they've
also increased about 300,000.
But what we've done is Tennesse,
we've done it the Tennessee way.
We implemented a block grant prm
that allowed us to any money that we had,
the shared savings that we had,
we were able were able to keep e
dollars and then can reinvest those back
into 10 care the first year we've done that.
It's safe.
Tennesseans, $330 million.
And we got to keep those resour,
which allowed Medic,
our Medicaid program,
10 care to reinvest those dolla.
And
yet mental health is getting woe
by the year because of the faile
of the legislature to fund it.
I completely disagree.
Mental health is getting worse by the
year because we have a culture that wait,
let me finish. Let me finish.
We have a culture that has lost its way down.
When you take a culture and you try to
remove God out of every aspect of culture,
you lock people down for over three years.
You trample over there the Repuc
and their liberties shootings.
Oh, it's a significant contributor right now?
Absolutely, because that leads o
a substantial mental health cri.
You talk to our professionals
at the state and bring them in
and over the last three years,
locking people down for three ys
and then expecting there not to
be a significant impact related.
That is, you're talking about C.
Sure, absolutely.
That's
a reason you would argue that wd
this surge in mental health problems.
Oh, without question.
And why people are going out
and doing mass shootings.
I want to make sure you're
on the record. I'm not
saying that locking people down
for three years has led to masse
mass shootings in 18 months.
It has. It has led to a substanl
increase in mental health.
The suicide rates have skyrocke.
I mean, that's the,
that's what the state gives us.
That's not my opinion.
That's based on what the state
when they testify before us
and give us that information.
And so
that's where you're coming from.
Like I think you said the president's
tyranny the other day in a twee.
You're kind of talking about
COVID restrictions and all
that question. Absolutely.
We've got to take a quick break
on inside Tennessee back.
Susan, we'll let you lead off te
second block with Representative
Jason Zachary right after this.