Tennessee House passes HB0254 despite almost insane opposition

HB0254 (Casada) / SB0554 (Norris) has a very limited purpose.  Its sole purpose is to omit the requirement that the FFL dealer obtain the thumb prints of purchasers of firearms.  TBI backs this bill because out of 2.3 million + sales the TBI has only requested the thumb prints once and in that case it was not useful.

Legislative Website Summary - HB0254

The bill was heard on the House floor today.  It had approximately 15 minutes of debate.  It is useful to watch the debate on the bill because you get an idea of whether the opposition to all guns bills will be this year.  Note that Jimmy Naifeh objected to passing the bill and insisted that it should have gone back to finance.  Furthermore, he made the comment that not all law enforcement were in favor of the restaurant bill - a factor which had absolutely nothing to do with HB0254 but may be evidence of an increasing inability to take legislation for its impact rather than the fact that it may mention “firearm” somewhere in its text.

Legislative Video of House Session 3-12-09 - Start at about minute 44 on the video for the debates.

House members voting against the bill are as follows:  Brown, Camper, Favors, Hardaway, Jones U, Miller, Naifeh, Pruitt, Richardson, Shaw, Turner L—11 (almost all of whom are from west Tennessee and typically strong Naifeh supporters).