Following School Shooting, Tennessee Swiftly Protects Gun Businesses

Priorities, y'all.

After every school shooting, anguished communities ask why lawmakers don't do something about guns, and in most cases Republicans don't do a damn thing except shake their heads sadly, explain that nothing can change until we all get Jesus in our hearts, and suggest that we all pray for for the victims before more of them pile up and God gets confused about which children we're praying for.

You certainly aren't seeing that kind of inaction in Tennessee, though, unless you mean Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) who literally said "we're not gonna fix it" and that any action Congress might take on guns would likely just "mess things up."

Previously:

 After Nashville School Shooting, Republicans Are Ready To Regulate Trans People 

 Tennessee Republicans Have Mass Shootings All Figured Out: More Guns, Everywhere, Always 

 Forgive Them Lord They ... Oh Wait. They Do. Tennessee House Lets Its Racist Freak Flag Fly. 

 TN Gov. Bill Lee Asks For Stronger Gun Laws, Will Presumably Be Expelled From TN House 

But at the state level, Tennessee lawmakers got right to work on expelling two Black Democrats who called for gun reform without permission. And now, mere weeks after the murders of three nine-year-olds and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville, the state Senate has passed a bill to shield gun manufacturers as well as gun and ammunition dealers from lawsuits , beyond the protections they already have in federal law. The state House passed its own version of the bill before the school shooting, and apparently no one thought it might be a good idea to just set the bill aside following the massacre.

The bill, SB 822, now goes to Gov. Bill Lee (R) to sign, so sellers of guns and gun accessories can rest easy. Unfortunately, it looks like the Lege, in a rush to finish its session this week, won't find the time or the votes to take any action on Lee's request to create an extreme risk protection order law (or "red flag" law) that could keep guns out of the hands of people who might harm themselves or others. Who would have guessed?

The bill protecting innocent gun businesses from legal liability passed Tuesday on a vote of 19 to 9. While gun makers and dealers already have considerable liability protection under federal law, Republicans are very unhappy that some lawsuits still get through against the suppliers of the holy instruments for Second Amendment worship, so the Tennessee bill further restricts the circumstances under which gun bidnisses can be sued, as WBIR-TV explained when the bill passed in the state House.

A person could only sue if the dealer or manufacturer was directly involved in a crime that gave rise to the lawsuit. Someone could also sue if the other party is facing federal charges, or [...] for "negligent entrustment" [if the seller knew the buyer was likely to harm someone else — Dok].

A person could also sue if the gun was made or sold in a way that violates a state or federal statute, or if there was a breach in the gun's warranty. They could also sue if there is a defect in the gun that led to a death or injury.

Before the vote, Democratic state Sen. London Lamar said pushing the bill through so soon after a school shooting was "disrespectful timing," particularly considering that protesters were at that moment marching outside the state Capitol to call for action to limit guns. Lamar said, "I am challenging you not to pass this bill because we need to do more to protect citizens from gun violence than the people making the guns that people can use to kill more people."

But the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Joey Hensley (R), insisted that nothing in his bill would prevent additional legislation on guns, cleverly leaving out the real point, which is that the Republican supermajority in both houses would manage that. He explained the bill "is just to try to help businesses in this state that have chosen to come here, to give them a little civil liability," a fighting chance to sell guns without anyone holding them accountable unless they really screw up spectacularly.

Three Republicans joined all the Senate Democrats in voting against SB 822; one, state Sen. Art Swann, said that "gun-makers have encouraged the environment we’ve got right now," and that "they're accountable for it, and we need to hold them to it."

The sole exceptions haven't involved the inherent deadliness of guns, but instead gun companies' bad behavior. Last year, Remington, which made the AR-15 rifle used by the Sandy Hook gunman, settled with victims' families for $73 million over its irresponsible advertising practices, which included placements of its guns in first-person shooter video games and that infamous "Consider Your Man Card Reissued" ad for the very model used by the killer.

And as the AP 'splains, 

in February, families of those killed and injured in a 2018 Texas high school shooting settled a lawsuit they filed against a Tennessee-based online retailer, Lucky Gunner, that was accused of illegally selling ammunition to the student who authorities say fatally shot 10 people. The owner of the company, Jordan Mollenhour, sits on the Tennessee State Board of Education. The company was accused of failing to verify Dimitrios Pagourtzis’ age — he was 17, at the time — when he bought more than 100 rounds of ammunition on two occasions before the May 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School.

Well it was sure nice of the Tennessee Lege to help out an upstanding Tennessee entrepreneur who happens to have been appointed by Bill Lee to the Ed Board and confirmed last year by the Senate.

But there's always going to be grumblers, like state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D), who said before the vote,

"There are people that we should be going out of way to protect this week. And we’ve been receiving emails and calls, people are holding up signs, telling us to go out of our way to help those people. Not one of those signs says to protect the gun manufacturers."

Well maybe if people want the same protections from guns that Tennessee gives to guns, they should make a bundle of money and get themselves appointed to a position of influence. That's how you get things done.

[ AP / Tennessean / WBIR ]

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