In a surprising turn of events, the Governor of Tennessee,
who is in fact a Republican, Bill Lee, is calling for gun reform.
In fact,
he signed an executive order following the school shooting at the Covenant School,
which, of course, killed six individuals, three of whom were children.
It was a religious school, and there were calls for
some level of gun reform following that shooting.
In fact, that was also what led to two Democratic lawmakers getting expelled
from the state legislature because they had engaged in a protest calling for
gun control legislation.
Now, the executive order mostly just calls for
bulking up the background checks that are conducted to ensure that individuals
who have no business purchasing a gun legally are unable to do so.
So four days after the Covenant shooting, the deadliest school shooting
in state history, Lee told The Tennessean he believes people who
are a danger to themselves or to others should not have access to weapons.
A position he reiterated a few days later when announcing a slate of school
safety measures with Republican legislative leaders.
I should note that the school safety measures were supported by both Democrats
and Republicans in the state, but that did nothing in regard to gun control.
Now, in the executive order, as I mentioned,
mostly focuses on background checks.
And so I'm gonna read from the executive order verbatim.
He writes, all entities with obligations to report relevant information
that is accessible in the Tennessee Instant Check System shall
ensure that all relevant information is either entered into TICS.
Or provided to the TBI within 72 hours of an entity's receipt of the information.
For purposes of this order, relevant information is criminal
history information and court mental health information.
So I'm gonna pause before I get to the rest of his executive order.
I don't have any real evidence to believe this, but I am a little bit concerned,
given the lack of support from people like Bill Lee when it comes to gun control.
And this sudden change of heart that this could be either an effort to
make it appear as though they're doing something, when in reality,
they're gonna do nothing about gun control.
Or and this is my real concern because of the rhetoric we've been hearing
on the right wing in regard to transgender individuals.
That this will mostly be used to take guns away or
limit the Second Amendment rights of transgender people.
Or people who have political ideologies that the right wing does not agree with.
>> Yeah, no, I'm really worried about this and so, look,
it is in two different parts, okay?
So first of all, the background check is great that's the bare minimum.
Background checks pull anywhere from 88% to 97%.
Over 80% of Republicans want them, over 70% of gun owners and
NRA members want them, but Republican politicians would not do them because
they're completely owned by the gun manufacturers.
But look at the protest in Tennessee, the students,
the young people went to the Capitol.
Justin Pearson, Justin Jones stood up and, hey, you got background checks.
It's the bare minimum, but it's a start, t's a start.
So that's the good news, that's the great news.
And you're forcing a Republican senator to react.
And the overreaction of the Republican in the legislature in Tennessee,
also hurt them, hurt their cause of trying to have unlimited guns, right?
So that's the good news,
the bad news is it's basically the second part is red flag laws.
And I like red flag laws, but
I'm deeply worried about how they're gonna apply them in Tennessee.
>> Yes.
>> Because there's been a lot of talk, including Matt Gates recently, Joe Rogan,
etc, talking about how, all trans people are mentally ill and
we have to take their guns away, etc.
Tucker Carlson all these guys have been talking about it,
all of a sudden, in a red state, they do a red flag law.
They don't call it a red flag law, but that's what it is.
That is very suspicious because that normally would not have happened.
I'm very worried about selective enforcement now in Tennessee.
>> Yeah, that's exactly right, that is my number one concern.
Given how lax the gun laws had been in this state,
given how in recent years they further decided to loosen the gun laws,
why suddenly is there this change of heart?
And it's hard to get excited about this change of heart,
which I ordinarily would feel excited about because it shows, okay,
there's finally some compromise, some common sense.
We're having a discussion about what Americans actually want in response to
the gun violence.
But in the lead up to this executive order, all of that rhetoric that we
were hearing about the shooter, who in this case was transgender,
just makes me concerned about how it's gonna be carried out, right?
So if it's carried out in a way, the red flag laws in Tennessee,
should they come to fruition?
If they're carried out in a way where they just rely on law enforcement
to make that decision and you don't have licensed mental health
professionals do a proper evaluation and sign off, that'll be an issue.
I think that it really needs to lie in the hands of mental health
professionals who do a proper analysis of the individual in question.
>> Yeah, one of our members on YouTube, Michael Melbourne, wrote, and
Anna's 100% right to be concerned here, guys we want red flag laws, but
if you have selective enforcement, it's gonna be a massive problem.
We don't want this to be an excuse to round up trans people, and
I'm very worried about it in a red state with the propaganda going on right now.
>> And finally, aside from the executive order,
there's also a Senate bill that I should just mention.
So Senate Bill 1564 would allow family members and
law enforcement to petition a civil court for an extreme risk protection order.
Which would allow law enforcement to temporarily remove
weapons from a person deemed a risk to themselves or others.
Again, the main concern here is law enforcement, which,
if law enforcement is making these decisions and
considering law enforcement, tends to lean pretty conservative,
the selective enforcement is a giant concern here.
So I just wanted to be as open about that as possible.
>> All right, one last thing here, I had recently said, man, if a lot of trans
people get guns, watch how quickly the Republicans start doing gun control.
Now, that's a comment we used to make about black folks, Muslim folks, etc.
And as a lot of you might know,
the history of gun control in California as we have it because of Ronald Reagan.
And the reason Ronald Reagan put gun control in California is because
Black Panthers showed up at the Capitol with guns, and they had every right to at
the time, and white people panicked, and they're like gun control now.
And that's apparently what's happening with trans people.
That's part of why we're worried about it, but, look,
we told you, the minute it's not Christian white males,
Republicans will panic about guns and start doing gun control.
And here we are.
>> So we'll follow the story and
report back if there's any additional development to it.