The West Tennessee Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association has posted about some proposed changes to the Jackson Municipal Code.
The high points:
- 15 Day waiting period for firearms purchases
- Seller must provide documentation of sale to Police Chief, including a thumbprint of the buyer, by certified mail
- Police Chief must approve all sales before the transaction can actually take place
- Seller must prove that the transaction is legal
Oh, and it’s a misdemeanor not a civil fine, so you’d actually go to jail for not following the procedure.
Now, my reading of the proposed ordinance is a little fuzzy on whether or not this applies to private sellers. Here is the relevant portion:
Nothing in this section shall preclude any person eligible to purchase a
pistol or sidearm, as set out above, from making an occasional sale of a used or
second-hand gun legally purchased by him without being licensed to do business
as such, but whenever such sale is made, the same procedure must be followed
as is provided above for persons licensed by the State of Tennessee to engage in
such business.
My translation of that is “You can make an occasional private sale without these onerous requirements, so long as you follow the procedure that someone with a license from the State to do private sales has to follow.” No such license exists, so there is no procedure to follow.
Of course, it’s against state law for them to do this, but to get it overturned you’d probably have to have someone arrested for violating it. Volunteers are probably hard to come by.
What is it with local politicians doing their damnest to pass illegal laws, even when the state attorney general tells them they are illegal (like the idiotic mayor of Seattle did). At least the good news is that the NRA was able to bring suit against that mayor without a sacrificial anode being used – I wonder if the same thing could be done here in Jackson.
Oh, and for those who would argue that localities in Tennessee are, in fact, preeempted from passing tighter laws than the state has, you might want to refresh yourself on Tennessee State Code 39-17-1314:
(Emphasis added.)
I hope the Jackson City Council digs their collective heads out of their collective arses, before the city has some costly, and otherwise unnecessary, legal battles that their tax-paying residents probably would not be too happy about…
The problem with this crap is that the politicians aren’t being punished. What they’re doing is illegal, yet they’re not really punished. Start throwing them in jail for violating preemption laws and these proposals will disappear overnight.
Something just occurred to me.
Chris Cox is from Jackson.
I wonder if he has been appraised of the situation…