Continued pressure on state lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions – including a lobbying visit to the state capitol during the next legislative session – tops the list of priorities for Memphis City Council members going into 2025.
A group trip to Nashville came up during a discussion of legislative priorities by members of the Personnel & Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
“We all know that we’re going to need their help to pass some of these laws. As our people are up there, we need to lobby for that and see if we can get some people to help us with it,” said council member Jeff Warren.
The suggestion follows the results of three gun control-related ordinances on Election Day a week earlier.
In addition to declaring that “proliferation of assault weapons” poses a health and safety threat to all citizens of the city,” voters also approved referendum questions that prohibit the open carry, or concealment of assault rifles within the city limits, and another that allows for a court to provide protections to people believed to be under threat from a gun owner.
“I agree wholeheartedly with my colleagues in regards to continuing to lobby for the common sense gun reforms that are overwhelmingly supported by the citizens of Memphis. There’s hardly anything that we all agree on 80% or higher in this town,” said Jerri Green.
The ordinances are trumped by state law, which allows for adults 21 and up to open carry without a permit. Permitless carry was enacted in 2021 by the Republican-dominated Tennessee State Legislature. The GOP now holds a 75-24 majority in the house and a 27-6 lead in the senate.
In both chambers, the concern of rural gun owners – like farming and hunting, for example – typically hold sway over the majorities. In cities, guns are typically kept for self-defense – or used as weapons.
“With these gun laws, I think we need to be more present with legislation in Nashville in working more closely together – showing our voice for the people who elected us in these seats. The votes showed what the temperature is here in Memphis and where the heartbeat of this city is, as far as gun violence,” Yolando Cooper-Sutton concurred.
Immediate lobbying was also recommended to build a consensus among other population centers across the state.
“I would suggest to my colleagues as we do travel to the National League of Cities (NLC), especially as we speak to other people who are in places of power within the state of Tennessee, to ask them to pass similar referendum,” recommended Green. “So the state can hear not just from Memphis, but from Nashville, Chattanooga, from Jackson…across the state.”
Members of the council are currently gathering for the start of a NLC summit in Tampa, Fla. The D.C.-based advocacy group represents the thousands of cities, towns and municipalities across the U.S. The conference runs Nov. 13-16.
Among the other ideas thrown into the 2025 hat to be prioritized were:
- Continued support for the Regional One Hospital expansion. A $750 million expansion of the Mid-South’s only trauma hospital is still in the planning stages.
- Legislation to limit the temperature data centers can raise water to prevent vaporization when cooling. A heat restriction would effectively requires data centers to become carbon neutral.
- A Human Life Protection Act that adds exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest to state prohibitions on access to abortion.
- Granting permission to add fees to phone bills of residents to assist in the funding of suicide prevention hotlines.
- Increasing taxes on vape products. Revenues would fund early childhood education programs. It would be similar to a Colorado law.
- Stronger support from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to address litter on interstates, bridges, railroads and underpasses.
- A Part-time work government work program for seniors to earn credit towards property taxes.
