VOLuntarilyConservative

The Knoxville chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will have its monthly meeting tonight. Special guest speaker will be Knoxville Mayor and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam.

Monthly meetings are held at The IHOP restaurant in front of Lowes, on Chapman Highway at the intersection of John Sevier Highway in South Knoxville. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. during which you may wish to eat dinner from the menu. The meeting will begin at 7:00 P.M. and end at 8:00 P.M. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend; YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND.

No word on whether Jackie and Dunlap will be making the trip from Murfreesboro to pepper Haslam with firearms questions. From the sounds of this ADULT RATED video (consider yourself warned...), they certainly have a new interest in owning firearms in Tennessee.

Labels: Red State Update, Second Amendment, TFA, Videos

The Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will have its June meeting tonight, June 2nd in South Knoxville.

The guest speaker is Jonathan Pirkle of Coal Creek Armory and his presentation will be about Class 3 firearms.

This meeting will he held at The IHOP restaurant, in front of Lowe’s, on Chapman Highway at the intersection of John Sevier Highway in South Knoxville. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. during which you may wish to eat dinner. The meeting will begin at 7:00 P.M. and end at 8:00 P.M. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend; YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND.

Labels: Second Amendment, TFA

Good catch by the Tennessee Firearms Association (of which I am a member) and the Tennessee Republican Party for exposing House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh as the liar that he is. The irony is that it was over a firearms issue, which are always the target of Naifeh's notorious parliamentary maneuvers.

Read more over at A.C.'s domain.

Maybe Doug Overbey and rest of the Republicans that continue to vote for Jimmy Naifeh to remain as House Speaker can come up with a gaggle of excuses to manipulate Naifeh out of this snare.

Labels: General Assembly, Second Amendment, TFA, TN GOP

This from the TFA's Knoxville Chapter regarding their May meeting:

TENNESSEE FIREARMS ASSOCIATION

KNOXVILLE CHAPTER

THE MAY MEETING WILL BE HELD ON

TUESDAY EVENING MAY 6, 2008

Our guest speaker is Mike Acuff from the American Eagle Foundation, he will talk about their operations at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.

Monthly meetings are held at Bob’s Mountaineer Restaurant, 10321 Chapman Highway (Rt. 441) in Seymour, TN. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6 PM to 7 PM during which you may wish to eat dinner either from the menu or from the buffet. The meeting will begin at 7 PM and end at 8 PM. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND. For more information contact: Bill Noll; wsnoll@comcast.net 865-688-0321 or Charlie Thoms; Cthoms43@aol.com 865-379-2151.

Labels: Second Amendment, TFA

Lots of activities to partake in around the area in the next few weeks, including:

• Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's Opening Night, tonight at 7:00 at the Tennessee Theatre.
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra, November 7th at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• UT Football's JV squad taking on Hargrave Military Academy, tonight at 7:00 at Neyland Stadium (admission is free).
• Tennessee Firearms Association meeting, October 2nd at 7:00 at Bob's Mountaineer Restaurant in Seymour.
• Mike Faulk for Senate fundraiser, October 11th at 5:30 P.M. in the Nashville City Center.
• GreekFest, Friday-Sunday at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Knoxville.

With good weather expected this weekend and no home football game for the Vols, there aren't too many excuses not to get involved in some fun around the region.

Labels: 2008 Tennessee General Assembly Campaigns, Football, Music, TFA

The Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will meet tonight at Bob's Mountaineer Restaurant in Seymour at 7:00 P.M. The guest speakers will be Senator Raymond Finney and State Representative Richard Montgomery.

Monthly meetings are held at Bob’s Mountaineer Restaurant, 10321 Chapman Highway (Rt. 441) in Seymour, TN. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6 PM to 7 pm during which you may wish to eat dinner either from the menu or from the buffet. The meeting will begin at 7 PM and end at 8 PM. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND.

Labels: TFA

Just a reminder that the Knoxville area chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will be meeting Tuesday evening, July 3rd, at Bob's Mountaineer Restaurant (which has a very nice salad bar on the buffet).

The speaker for July's meeting is Officer Todd Gilreath of the Knoxville Police Department's Bomb Squad. No word on whether there will be any demonstrations or explosions, but I'm crossing my fingers.

Monthly meetings are held at Bob’s Mountaineer Restaurant, 10321 Chapman Highway (Rt. 441) in Seymour, TN. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6 PM to 7 pm during which you may wish to eat dinner either from the menu or from the buffet. The meeting will begin at 7 PM and end at 8 PM. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND.

Labels: TFA

According to my friends at the NRA, two pro-gun bills are heading towards Governor Bredesen's desk for signature.

House Bill 1285, sponsored by State Representative Dolores Gresham (R-94) and its companion bill, Senate Bill 1597, introduced by State Senator Mark Norris (R-32), unanimously passed both the House and Senate. HB 1285/SB 1597 would protect our Second Amendment rights during a state of emergency by prohibiting any government agency from regulating the lawful sale, possession, transfer, transport and carry of firearms, such as occurred following Hurricane Katrina.

It is unclear as to whether Bredesen will sign this bill or not, as he has already voiced his opinion that he would clearly exercise the power he believes he has to confiscate firearms if need be. Of course, Governor Bredesen never has been that familiar with the Tennessee Constitution that he swore to uphold and defend, because those actions would clearly be unconstitutional (as per the interpretation of Professor Reynolds, who was one of the scholars that put together one of the first interpretations of the Tennessee Constitution back in the 1990s).

House Bill 145, sponsored by State Representative Michael McDonald (D-44), and its companion bill, Senate Bill 135, sponsored by State Senator Doug Jackson (D-25), were also passed by a unanimous vote. HB 145/SB 135 require land managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency to have a base line number of public hunting acres that are always open to hunting, guaranteeing that future generations have the same hunting opportunities that are enjoyed today.

HB145/SB135 is partly a reaction to the David McMahan-led corruption of the TWRA, an episode that proved that it really is who you know when it comes to a set of rights for the elite and a different set of laws for everyone else.

You can call Governor Bredesen at (615) 741-2001 to let him know that he needs to sign these bills.

My sources with the Tennessee Firearms Association have indicated that HB132 (Mike Bell's bill which would allow for a citizen with a handgun carry permit to carry on all public hunting lands) and HB2184 (which is Frank Nicely's bill that would allow carry within the boundaries of any state park) have been rolled to next week in order for all members of House Judiciary to be present.

The fate of these two bills lies with Democratic Representatives Henry Fincher and Eddie Bass. They have shown support for the bills in the past, but it is likely that they will face significant arm-twisting by Speaker Naifeh and his minions (Briley and Sontany in this case) over the next week.

If you feel so inclined, give Rep. Fincher (800-449-8366, x 11875) and Rep. Bass (800-449-8366, x 11864) a call and ask them to continue to support these bills.

With the General Assembly doing next to nothing about illegal immigration (or many other important issues), it would be nice to come out of this session with some quality pro-firearm legislation.

Labels: General Assembly, NRA, Second Amendment, TFA

Just passing this along...

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TENNESSEE FIREARMS ASSOCIATION
KNOXVILLE CHAPTER

May's meeting will be held on Tuesday evening, May 1, 2007.

Guest Speaker: Tom Wiest

Tom writes “Outdoors” articles for some local newspapers and will speak on various subjects related to hunting including remedies for the national decline in hunting.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Monthly meetings are held at Bob’s Mountaineer Restaurant, 10321 Chapman Highway (Rt. 441) in Seymour, TN. A pre-meeting social hour is from 6 PM to 7 pm during which you may wish to eat dinner either from the menu or from the buffet. The meeting will begin at 7 PM and end at 8 PM. Participation by those in attendance is always encouraged.

Gun owners, persons involved in the shooting sports, Second Amendment supporters and interested public are urged to attend, YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ATTEND.

Labels: Second Amendment, TFA

This little blog started on April 19, 2005, and it seems as if there should be more than 1,000 posts here (in addition to the posts on other sites such as Blogging for Bryant, the Bryson Blog, BillHobbs.com, etc.). However, the Blogger meter is saying that this is #1,000, so we'll go with that.

For my 1000th post, I thought we would come back around to a subject that has always been near and dear to my heart (as well as my former employer) - the right to keep and bear arms.

The NRA put the following alert out a few days back:

***

SENATE VERSION OF NATIONAL RIGHT-TO-CARRY BILL INTRODUCED

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) recently introduced S. 388--the Senate version of H.R. 226, a national Right-to-Carry reciprocity bill that would provide national reciprocity for state carry licensees. This legislation would allow any person with a valid carry permit or license issued by a state to carry a concealed firearm in any other state if they meet certain criteria. The bill would not create a federal licensing system; it would simply require the states to recognize each other's carry permits, just as they recognize drivers' licenses.

For more information on these bills, please visit www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=189.

Please be sure to contact your U.S. Senators and Representative and ask them to cosponsor and support S. 388 and H.R. 226! You can call your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121, and your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121.

***

Obviously, this is long overdue. I have spoken previously with both Tennessee Senators in 2006 about the need to support such a bill. I'm a little surprised that it has come up this early in the new Democratic reign of Congress, but how S.388 and H.R.226 are handled in the Congress should be a sign of where pro-Second Amendment advocates stand at this present time.

On a similar note, I want to spread the word for readers in the local area that the Knox County Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association will be meeting at Bob's Mountaineer Restaurant in Seymour Tuesday evening. A pre-meeting social hour occurs from 6:00 until 7:00 (at which time you can order from the menu or eat from the buffet), with the meeting beginning at 7:00 and usually lasting about an hour.

Our speaker for this meeting is Larry Self from Bass Pro Shop in Sevierville. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER OF TENNESSEE FIREARMS ASSOCIATION TO ATTEND.

So come on out, eat some good grub, and spend some time with other Tennesseans who believe in the right to keep and bear arms.

MORE: If you haven't already read it, check out Professor Reynolds' New York Times op-ed from a couple of weeks ago. He writes about the kind of local government that is needed in America.

Labels: NRA, Second Amendment, TFA