Worriedman

We meet in the Heritage Room, would love to have you come.

The Stated Meeting of the West TN Regional Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will be held Thursday, November 10, 2011, at Brooks Shaw and Sons Old Country Store, located in the Casey Jones Village, Jackson, TN. Our featured Speaker will be David Nance, noted local Conservative Activist and Chairman of the Tennessee 8th District Tea Party Coalition. David will be speaking on the Constitutional Sheriff's proposed legislation that is gaining strength in Tennessee. There will be a question and answer session to complete the meeting. We will meet at 5:30 for those who care to share a meal and fellowship, the meeting proper will begin at 7:00. Membership is not a requirement to attend, all are welcome.

Matheny is doing his best to support our issues, and appears to have made some inroads with the Speaker's office. If in fact one is inclined to be in favor of the Task Force's originally specified intent, now is the time to support that approach. Contacting the members of the Task Force, as well as your individual Representative asking them to move forward with a review of the current laws with respect to their Constitutionality would be an excellent idea. Our General Assembly will only react if there is support from the electorate. It is ours to win or lose at this point. We have a chance to affect the legislation of the next session in a positive way, IF we can underpin the Speaker Pro Tempore's efforts on our behalf.

"Duh!" as my grand daughter says.

I think the issue we need to be cognizant of is the fact that Matheny is doing all he can to manage the bad press generated by the Todd issue, and has been somewhat successful in that endeavor, proven by the fact that "Task Force" was not swept away as a result. Leadership has been restrained from casting us aside, and I think that is due primarily to the Speaker Pro Tempore's focus to keep this discussion ongoing. We are all aware of how the press and those who would see us set back in our struggle to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed Right to keep and bear arms here in Tennessee are circled like a group of vultures about the specter of "bubbaism" embodied by the Todd debacle. That the Speaker's office has decided to let Matheny continue on with the Task Force is a sign that we may have an actual opportunity to further our cause even in the face of Todd's actions. If in fact the Task Force continues on to fruition, it would be a glimmer of a Phoenix rising out of the damage done, and could possibly herald a real endeavor of Leadership to have a discussion of the merits of the issues within the structure of the Task Force as originally intended.

No Democrat had a chance of being Speaker this year, so that seat could not have been occupied by anything other than a Republican. Perhaps you mean her district seat, seeded as it is with less than Conservative constituents, and if she showed less Liberal tendencies possibly a Democrat would have won her seat. The fact is, in her last six votes related to the issue, she has proven herself to be against the interest of those who advocate to broaden the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, batting 1000. She is an Alexander devotee and we all know where his stance is. Every Republican chants the mantra that they support the 2nd Amendment, but by their actions rather than their words they seem to hold it up less by their deeds than by their rhetoric, if last year's session is to be the metric we gauge them by. Some actually do support it (and to those I am grateful), but there are those of the opposing party that do as well, the Republicans do not own that.

Harwell won by a very small majority, (it only takes one over 50%) in the Caucus election for Speaker, so it is not all of them that can be painted with that brush, but enough that we wound up with the result.

I concur 100%, but will the rest of Leadership support him in any way?

My view of the last Legislative session was that the only Bill that received even cursory consideration was beat down by those who were bought and paid for by Fed Ex. Josh Evans was co-opted to gut his Parking Lot Bill, and nothing else even made it out of committee. If Evan's Bill had been allowed on the floor for consideration it would have passed, and the Senate would have passed it as well. The Governor, while no friend of gun owners, would have signed it into law so as to put off the need to be overridden. Money talked and our ability to get anything done legislation wise walked as a very moderate/liberal leadership decided to throw firearms issues under the bus. We saw no hesitation as the General Assembly passed with lightning speed the ability to let businesses directly fund legislators and their election campaigns, the need to gain the cash for re-election showing far more momentum in both houses than any other issue.

From McCormick's original statements relative to the purpose of said Task Force:

McCormick: House GOP firearms task force to continue | timesfreepress.com Seems obvious which of these two Legislators considers firearms issues as important, and which one does not.

Election year coming up, moderate to liberal leadership, task force is a goner, and there will be no initiatives brought forth in the 2012 session to further any firearms issues. Notice McCormick's statement "This is certainly of secondary importance right now," he tells the AP's Erik Schelzig. "I think at this time we need to double back and focus in on economic issues." He has been no friend to the effort prior to now, why would he be at this point. If the "Task Force" had been meant to be anything other than schtick, it would have met several times during Summer Study.

The plot thickens... Breaking: new evidence shows Hillary a mastermind behind Gunwalker - National Conservative | Examiner.com

If you do any high volume bottleneck case reloading, the Giraud is worth every penny. The switch from 5.56 to .308 is simple and quick.

Rally to Support Gibson Anybody else intending to attend?

Tennessee gun crime rate is among highest | The Tennessean | tennessean.com Interesting views expressed within the article.

Never loose sight of the fact that Alexander is the titular head of the Republican Party in Tennessee. Our current Governor and Speaker of the House are disciples of his "brand" of politics, both having been personally involved in HIS campaigns, and being recipients of his influence and backing for their ascension to the positions they currently enjoy. Along with ex-Governor Winfield Dunn, Alexander wields more influence on State Republican politics than any other. There was a big push on their part to affect the selection of Harwell as Speaker of the House, arguably the most powerful position in State Government. Now, having spoken to several individuals in Leadership of the Republican caucus recently, their main thrust and goal is to reach the magic number of 66 in the TN House. Appealing to "Moderates" and "Independents" will be their tact in upcoming elections, Conservatives will take a back seat in their pandering for votes, as it is their position that they have us firmly ensconced in their camp, so therefore we are unimportant.

Birds of a feather... Evidently Corker will NOT be in attendance.

Yes they still have an office in Jackson. I ran up against them last year when they tried to add back in the nonsense about all handgun purchases having to be approved by the Chief of Police etc., the old standard stuff. We shut down the City Council meeting and went into a sidebar, and they withdrew their push, once they saw I had done my homework. I even had the New Chief of Police backing my stance. They do not like me much down here. They also had a presence when we beat them on Parks Carry.

He wants to reach across the isle more by getting his "independence" back: Lamar Alexander: 'Getting my independence back' - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com

The comments are up on the original post now.

After meeting him and Paul Helmke and wearing them out with questions at a debate at UT Martin a couple of years ago, I think your personification of the said Mr. Dread is spot on!

Mr. Lott showed up at the TFA Meeting last night. We had Adam Dread scheduled, Mr. Dread did not tarry long, nor would he speak while there was video equipment running...

That is exactly how I ended my comment to his article, but I suspect it will not pass liberal muster and will never make it to the comment section..

There is no mention of regulatory provision with regard to firearms anywhere in the Constitution, that document being a list of chains placed on the Federal Government by the States. Remember, government has no rights, they only have power given by the People or the States. The Amendments were intended to vouchsafe Rights of the People, further constraining the Federal Government in it's powers. The Second, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" was a further wrap of chain on the Federal Government with respect to the issue. It is the only mention, and is a plain rebuttal of the ability of the Feds to regulate arms ownership and carry by the citizen. The Tenth further limits the Fed, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It is specific, but anti-big government, so it too is under fire by those who would rule instead of govern.