Several legislators say they want Governor Bill Haslam to proceed with an executive order that would recognize active military service members’ identification cards as Tennessee Carry Permits while they serve in their active service roles for the Tennessee National Guard.
Tennessee senators and veterans Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City), Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville), and Mark Green (R-Clarksville) said they "are concerned that our military men and women are left vulnerable as this process fails to match the immediacy of the threat."
They stated, "Following the targeted attacks on military installations in Chattanooga on July 16 that resulted in the deaths of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy sailor, the Tennessee Senate Veterans Caucus formerly requested that Governor Haslam issue this executive order."
They said the governor initially developed an expedited process in response to the attack, but the executive order has not been issued.
Senator Green said, “The swift call for Tennessee’s Adjutant General to boost the security of our state’s National Guard facilities, even with weapons, at his discretion is applauded. Additional action must be taken to allow our military men and women an opportunity to defend themselves. The evidence of organizations such as ISIS specifically naming soldiers and their families as targets warrants immediate action, not a shortened process.”
He said governors in seven states have acted in their roles of the states’ Commander-in-Chief to order their Guardsmen be armed while on active duty, eliminating gun-free zones that currently exist in Tennessee’s facilities. Florida, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin have enacted through executive order the policy change for their National Guard military installations.
Senator Graham said, “Appreciating the need to work within federal oversight and military policy when installations are co-located, the duty of the Legislative Branch is to echo the consent of Tennesseans. The continued designation in our military instillations as ‘gun-free-zones’ exposing our Guardsmen must end for the purpose of security.”
Senator Crowe said, “The weapons training possessed by a Guardsman to fight an enemy in combat should be logically sufficient to qualify them to carry a sidearm while actively serving stateside for their protection.”