TN Candidates & the TFA questionnaire results

[Sam1]

List of all state legislative candidates and their responses to the TFA questionnaire.  Surprised that some actually had the balls to vote yes across the board and not squirm around.

 

http://www.tennesseefirearms.org/news/item/7-2014-candidate-survey-results

[Oh Shoot]

List of all state legislative candidates and their responses to the TFA questionnaire.  Surprised that some actually had the balls to vote yes across the board and not squirm around.

 

http://www.tennesseefirearms.org/news/item/7-2014-candidate-survey-results

 

TFA really should have distinguished between "no response" and "no". Seems pretty obviously that the majority of legislators simply didn't send back survey at all, maybe never even saw it depending on aides handling the mail or whatever.

 

 

- OS

Edited July 1, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[Sam1]

or could be that they were avoiding it altogether so they can bend whichever way the wind needs them to so they can grab onto some power.  TFA has a pretty big presence, the fact that their staff or they would disregard it says a lot.

[RED333]

Susan Lynn did the no vote across the board, if she did not send it in then she is not paying attention.

[Oh Shoot]

Susan Lynn did the no vote across the board, if she did not send it in then she is not paying attention.

 

Point is, no way to know if she sent it back or not.

 

If you look at the questions -- 19-26 aren't even about firearms -- it's pretty unlikely that very many would actually be "no" all the way across the board. I think it's safe to say that most if not all of the ones that are all red did not respond at all, and there's no way to know the reason.

 

- OS

[Worriedman]

Reason is they are ticked at the TFA for calling them out on their method of killing legislation, using the Naifeh committee gambit, never put anything on the floor and take a vote, whack it under direction of leadership, as the Chamber does not like the thought of more armed Citizens.

 

If you see all "No" votes, they did not return the survey.  Holt posted his on Facebook all shot up.  The complete transformation of the Republicans who used the TFA as a cudgel to get rid of Naifeh, promising Nirvana for gun rights should they ascend to the throne, turned against the mere mention of the word once they had the Supermajority. 

Edited July 2, 2014 by Worriedman

[Worriedman]

From years past, when they palled around with us...

[Sam1]

TFA really should have distinguished between "no response" and "no". Seems pretty obviously that the majority of legislators simply didn't send back survey at all, maybe never even saw it depending on aides handling the mail or whatever.

 

 

- OS

 

 

Easy way to fix that, just send a short email to the rep asking them.  I just shot one to Jeremy Durham with questions and he replied back within 3 minutes saying that he had not returned it yet.

 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeremy Durham <rep.jeremy.durham@capitol.tn.gov>

Subject: RE: TFA questionnaire

Date: July 1, 2014 at 8:54:42 PM CDT

To: 

I have completed the form but haven't yet returned it.

________________________________________

From: 

Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 8:51 PM

To: Jeremy Durham

Subject: TFA questionnaire

 

TFA released their questionnaire today and it appears that your office either didn’t respond or voted a "no" across the board.  Not all questions were related to firearms, and some of them are concerning important topics associated with various socioeconomic factors that may play a role in the success of our state in the future.

 

Did you all plan on responding to that questionnaire, or do you have a site (outside of your bills listed on the state site) that can give us a little insight on where you stand for items #19, #20, #24 and #26?

 

Thanks

 

Also put an inquiry in on Jack Johnson (partial answers) maybe a response by tomorrow.

 

Point is the questionnaire isn't a be all end all report... it just gives us some dialog to use for contacting them, and to remind them there are a lot of gun owners in this state that are very interested on these topics.

 

<edit> before I could finish this John Harris emailed and said they wouldn't update any of the report without extenuating circumstances causing the delay:

 

 

Samuel

 

We will likely continue to score Rep. Durham as a "refused to answer".   They original cutoff was some time ago and we sent reminders to candidates even after that date.  It is not fair to others who did respond timely to allow someone to sit on the response until after the results are published.

 

In the absence of some compelling reason why the deadline was ignored, we will not publish responses after the results are posted.

 

John Harris

 

 

Anyways, point is, it takes a couple of minutes to contact them and start asking.  They haven't seen any strong input/inquiries form the public for the entire 4 years I've lived in TN.  It's usually just people talking on the internet about how so and so sucks

Edited July 2, 2014 by Sam1

[Oh Shoot]

Reason is they are ticked at the TFA for calling them out on their method of killing legislation, ...

 

Likely part of it, but note these were sent to all candidates, not sitting legislators only. Possibly any number of the folks running, who don't even really have a full time staff and maybe not even one full time aide, simply lost it in the shuffle.

 

- OS

[Guest theconstitutionrocks]

For me personally #4,19, and 24 are the big ones.

 

#4-Nullification

#19-Teaching the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence

#24-Requires AG to challange federal laws that violate the 2nd or 10th amendments (which incidentally are not laws anyway IAW Am Jur 2nd, 177 & 256)

 

The ones who DID apparently respond, at least had enough sense to answer Yes to #19...that should be a no brainer. What bothers me however, is that those who did not answer YES across the board, the majority of them seem to answer NO on #4 and 24. This is alarming because it seems to be an admission that the state is not willing to shield us in the event of federal overreach. In fact, they may actually become PART of the problem. The insinuation then is that the only thing that stands between sweeping federal authority is local government, law enforcement (maybe), and the citizens themselves.

[tartanphantom]

Can't get the survey results to load at all in either Firefox or IE 11.

[Oh Shoot]

Can't get the survey results to load at all in either Firefox or IE 11.

 

Still? (maybe Scribd was down for a bit, works for me right now)

 

- OS

[Wheelgunner]

I took a look at the questionnaire and the responses via Sam1'a link.  It sucks that so many reps did not respond, but it is pretty enlightening to study the answers of those who did.  

 

I'm very grateful to the folks at TFA for putting together this survey and helping show where our elected leaders actually stand on some of the biggest issues.

[tartanphantom]

Still? (maybe Scribd was down for a bit, works for me right now)

 

- OS

 

It's working now for me.

 

What does the "LP" column stand for in the survey results?

Edited July 2, 2014 by tartanphantom

[Oh Shoot]

It's working now for me.

 

What does the "LP" column stand for in the survey results?

 

Took me a while, but it's the Leadership Pledge:

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/231658692/TN-Firearms-Assoc-Candidate-Leadership-Pledge

 

- OS

Edited July 2, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[LagerHead]

I think one important question was missing?

 

"If you answered 'yes' to all or the majority of the previous questions, is it because you're a bald faced liar and will kiss anyone's ass simply to get their vote?"

 

If they answered 'no,' then you know the answer is 'yes.' 

[RED333]

Point is, no way to know if she sent it back or not.

 

If you look at the questions -- 19-26 aren't even about firearms -- it's pretty unlikely that very many would actually be "no" all the way across the board. I think it's safe to say that most if not all of the ones that are all red did not respond at all, and there's no way to know the reason.

 

- OS

She did respond to my e-mail about her survey, she did not turn it in for the reason as to not give the demarcates and ammo to use against her.

[Sam1]

I stand corrected at my previous statement about people not thinking it was important enough to complete.  J. Durham actually took the time out to send me an email first thing this morning and scanned a copy of it in for me to review his stance, and said he simply forgot to send it in.  I uploaded it here:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpai36khylb4rwv/Scanned-image.pdf

 

If this guy would take the time out of his day to scan it and email the document to me, just a random person and not a member of some political group, then I was obviously wrong by initially saying that people were avoiding it.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Sam1

[Luke E.]

I think one important question was missing?

 

"If you answered 'yes' to all or the majority of the previous questions, is it because you're a bald faced liar and will kiss anyone's ass simply to get their vote?"

 

If they answered 'no,' then you know the answer is 'yes.' 

 

 I think you are correct. I don't believe there is one man or woman on that list that honestly would fully support all issues addressed. I think TFA went a bit overboard here and I tend to think that it likely wasn't taken very seriously by most candidates and incumbents because of that. Not to say that I don't agree with all of them on some level and I consider myself to be a very strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and firearms freedom but even I would have a few concerns with some items on the list.

[JayC]

Like what?  With the exception of trying to interfere in the employee/employer relationship nothing on that list concerns me at all.

 

 I think you are correct. I don't believe there is one man or woman on that list that honestly would fully support all issues addressed. I think TFA went a bit overboard here and I tend to think that it likely wasn't taken very seriously by most candidates and incumbents because of that. Not to say that I don't agree with all of them on some level and I consider myself to be a very strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and firearms freedom but even I would have a few concerns with some items on the list.

[Worriedman]

Truely, the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with Tennessee Legislators, they cannot affect it on the federal level, and the feds are not supposed to affect any of our Rights here in Tennessee.

 

Let them lie about their support of Article 1 Section 26 of our State Constitution would be more appropriate if no more honest.

[JayC]

Truth is they could affect changes on the federal level.  

 

1.  Pass a law to make it a crime to provide any information to the federal government without a warrant signed by judge.  

2.  Pass a law that makes it a crime for any employee of the state or a local government to provide any material support to a federal law enforcement agency involving any firearm related case.

3.  Revoke state law enforcement powers granted to all federal agents, and force them to go armed under the same rules as citizens of TN.

 

Crazy, yes.  Won't ever happen... but those 3 laws would basically turn the federal government into a toothless tiger here in TN regarding the 2nd amendment.

 

Truely, the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with Tennessee Legislators, they cannot affect it on the federal level, and the feds are not supposed to affect any of our Rights here in Tennessee.

 

Let them lie about their support of Article 1 Section 26 of our State Constitution would be more appropriate if no more honest.

Edited July 11, 2014 by JayC

[tnhawk]

or could be that they were avoiding it altogether so they can bend whichever way the wind needs them to so they can grab onto some power.  TFA has a pretty big presence, the fact that their staff or they would disregard it says a lot.

If a candidate disregards the TFA, can a citizen expect the candidate to listen to him?