Will Memphis Save Itself?

Tennessee’s largest city pushes back on guns

There’s a constitutional crisis brewing over on the Tennessee side of the Mississippi River.

We don’t see much about this in Nashville or Knoxville, but the new story unfolding in Memphis over gun laws - and the City Council’s deep frustration with the state Capitol - is one everybody should read and inwardly digest. Read all about it in this weekend update story in the Commercial Appeal.

This is, without question, the rising story of the late summer. And it is but the latest example, from 18 months that’s brought many sad examples, of how Capitol Hill always takes the side of the Gun.

Memphis Council Chair J.B. Smiley and his members are desperate for something sensible and effective to be done to deal with the rise in gun-related violence in their jurisdiction - and they are convinced that Memphis voters would agree if asked. The Council hoped to set in motion four local referenda measures that would demonstrate the temperature of their constituents. Just as it’s been measured repeatedly in polling statewide, these local leaders are convinced that state “leaders” are much less eager (than citizens more broadly) to take decisive action.

Too many people - young and old - are being injured. Too many killed. Parents worry that schools are at risk, and their children unsafe. The common element, apart from the blood in the streets, is the Gun.

The Republican regime’s preferred solution in Nashville, where the powers that be are not coming to anyone’s rescue, was the ridiculous thought to give teachers guns also. (Local school boards across Tennessee don’t seem to be buying into that, by the way.)

Tennessee’s State Capitol - where the Republican Regime lives in its majesty

So the municipal policy-makers in Memphis took matters in their own hands and adopted a small set of actions to establish local referenda to clarify what the people want. They were careful to say these votes would be “non-binding” but illustrative of the local temperature for action.

But immediately three things happened, two of them in Nashville.

1. The leaders of the legislature spoke out in defiance, as with one voice, reminding everybody listening that Tennessee’s permissive gun culture shall not be challenged, nor mocked, not upset nor threatened in any way, by any upstart do-gooders, no matter whom they think they speak for. If you try to defy our norms, the authority of your gerrymandered state government will come down on you, hard - always fueled, as ever, by the wishes of the organized gun-industry lobby. They are in charge and prefer the lawless Wild West way things are. (They even threatened to cut off state funding.)

2. Secretary of State Tre Hargett then announced he would not certify such referenda, that they could not legally appear on the local ballot at all. His constitutional office controls election matters, and he is elected by the Legislature after all.

3. In Memphis, seeing this rapid slam-dunk response from Capitol Hill, Mayor Paul Young blinked and so did Mark Luttrell, the chairman of the local election commission. So much for local resolve and solidarity.

But this is how the regime rolls - and how so many others will so often fall in line.

Will the local referenda push be abandoned now?

I hope not.

Council Member Jerri Green said the City of Memphis “would not back down.” And she went on to call the move by Republican state officials unpatriotic and unChristian.

“Why do you want us to not be safe?” Council member Pearl Eva Walker said. “Why do you want us to be poor?... Why do you want to break this community?"

“Because where we are with this gun violence and these ridiculous laws we cannot sustain like this. We have to stake a stand on behalf of our government independence."

I suspect the Memphis City Council is about to learn the level of their own resolve and test the mettle of their own lawyers - and whether their attorneys will be out-lawyered in Nashville.

© 2024 Keel Hunt