During their Tuesday, Jan. 7, meeting, Memphis City Council members passed an amendment adding a “trigger” to an ordinance that included a series of gun control measures approved by voters during the 2024 election.
Members also voted to enter the results of the 2024 election into the permanent council record.
The resolution acknowledges that current state law nullifies the ordinance. However, the amendment includes language allowing the ordinance to kick in if the current open-carry law is changed in the future.
“It basically makes it a trigger ordinance that’s triggered upon the adoption of various legislation,” said the council’s attorney Allan Wade. “It clearly articulates your position that it will not be pursued in this form until that happens.”
The ordinance includes an effective date. It will become a working law 30 days after one of these things occur: A change in the open-carry law by the Tennessee Legislature, an act of Congress or a ruling by a “competent” court.
The add-on consent agenda item was introduced during an afternoon executive session. It passed using same-night minutes.
This resolution is also an attempt to thwart a lawsuit filed by gun rights groups in Memphis Circuit Court Nov. 13. The lawsuit alleges the ordinance violates the state’s new statute that only allows for the legislature to regulate firearms.
Council members openly expressed the likelihood of a lawsuit while shepherding the ordinance through its eventual passage.
“What happened, I believe, is these parties were instigated by certain people in Nashville to file this lawsuit,” explained Wade. “The lawsuit we will file will state that it is totally unnecessary. It is totally not justifiable because we do not dispute that [the ordinance] is presently unenforceable.”
The in-limbo referendum declares that “proliferation of assault weapons” poses a health and safety threat to all Memphis citizens. It seeks to prohibit open carry and concealed carry of assault rifles within the city limits. A third question allows for a court to provide protections to people believed to be under threat from a gun owner or to protect the life of the gun owner, if they are a threat to themselves.
Memphis voters approved the gun control measures by more than 80 percent during the Nov. 5 election.
Tennessee state law permits legal gun owners to open carry without a permit, which includes people 21 or older with no felony record, as well as those younger than 21 with an honorable military discharge.
However, Wade believes many are operating under a “misconception” of the law. The fine print offers hope. The law does not permit “all firearms, ammunition and components.” There are exceptions.
The statute authorizes local governments to regulate in some circumstances, such as city employees or independent contractors carrying firearms or the discharge of firearms within the city limits.
All state or federal restrictions for firearms, ammunition and components still apply.
Wade also pointed out that Memphis’ problems don’t stem from legal gun owners, but instead from illegal possession of firearms used in crimes, typically by youthful offenders.
The state laws might be enough to address the problem, along with proper Memphis Police Department policies and council funding.
“I think that’s the kind of thing that we should be doing,” recommended Wade. “We should be supporting their efforts to get illegal use of weapons off our streets. Our people want it. They want us to be creative and thoughtful and try to do whatever we can within the boundaries of the law.”
He also said many of those efforts are underway. More than100 juveniles are currently detained in the county’s juvenile detention center for gun crimes. Some have charges as serious as first-degree murder. However, the problem can only be addressed when encountered by police.
The answer didn’t satisfy everyone.
“Sounds like we’re still in a pickle,” replied Council Member Yolanda Cooper-Sutton.
At the tail end of the executive session discussion, which preceded the full council vote, preventative measures were offered to address the problem of gun crime. During the pandemic, many felonies were traced back to stolen firearms. One effective tool was the use of gunlock giveaways by the MPD and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have seen a drop in [the use of stolen firearms in felonies] in our community precipitously in the last two years,” said first-term Council Member Jerri Green.
Green’s day job is an attorney for Shelby County. Administering gunlock giveaways is one of her responsibilities.
