Worriedman

No Democrat had a chance of being Speaker this year, so that seat could not have been occupied by anything other than a Republican. Perhaps you mean her district seat, seeded as it is with less than Conservative constituents, and if she showed less Liberal tendencies possibly a Democrat would have won her seat. The fact is, in her last six votes related to the issue, she has proven herself to be against the interest of those who advocate to broaden the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, batting 1000. She is an Alexander devotee and we all know where his stance is. Every Republican chants the mantra that they support the 2nd Amendment, but by their actions rather than their words they seem to hold it up less by their deeds than by their rhetoric, if last year's session is to be the metric we gauge them by. Some actually do support it (and to those I am grateful), but there are those of the opposing party that do as well, the Republicans do not own that.

Harwell won by a very small majority, (it only takes one over 50%) in the Caucus election for Speaker, so it is not all of them that can be painted with that brush, but enough that we wound up with the result.

I concur 100%, but will the rest of Leadership support him in any way?

My view of the last Legislative session was that the only Bill that received even cursory consideration was beat down by those who were bought and paid for by Fed Ex. Josh Evans was co-opted to gut his Parking Lot Bill, and nothing else even made it out of committee. If Evan's Bill had been allowed on the floor for consideration it would have passed, and the Senate would have passed it as well. The Governor, while no friend of gun owners, would have signed it into law so as to put off the need to be overridden. Money talked and our ability to get anything done legislation wise walked as a very moderate/liberal leadership decided to throw firearms issues under the bus. We saw no hesitation as the General Assembly passed with lightning speed the ability to let businesses directly fund legislators and their election campaigns, the need to gain the cash for re-election showing far more momentum in both houses than any other issue.

From McCormick's original statements relative to the purpose of said Task Force:

McCormick: House GOP firearms task force to continue | timesfreepress.com Seems obvious which of these two Legislators considers firearms issues as important, and which one does not.

Election year coming up, moderate to liberal leadership, task force is a goner, and there will be no initiatives brought forth in the 2012 session to further any firearms issues. Notice McCormick's statement "This is certainly of secondary importance right now," he tells the AP's Erik Schelzig. "I think at this time we need to double back and focus in on economic issues." He has been no friend to the effort prior to now, why would he be at this point. If the "Task Force" had been meant to be anything other than schtick, it would have met several times during Summer Study.

The plot thickens... Breaking: new evidence shows Hillary a mastermind behind Gunwalker - National Conservative | Examiner.com

If you do any high volume bottleneck case reloading, the Giraud is worth every penny. The switch from 5.56 to .308 is simple and quick.

Rally to Support Gibson Anybody else intending to attend?

Tennessee gun crime rate is among highest | The Tennessean | tennessean.com Interesting views expressed within the article.

Never loose sight of the fact that Alexander is the titular head of the Republican Party in Tennessee. Our current Governor and Speaker of the House are disciples of his "brand" of politics, both having been personally involved in HIS campaigns, and being recipients of his influence and backing for their ascension to the positions they currently enjoy. Along with ex-Governor Winfield Dunn, Alexander wields more influence on State Republican politics than any other. There was a big push on their part to affect the selection of Harwell as Speaker of the House, arguably the most powerful position in State Government. Now, having spoken to several individuals in Leadership of the Republican caucus recently, their main thrust and goal is to reach the magic number of 66 in the TN House. Appealing to "Moderates" and "Independents" will be their tact in upcoming elections, Conservatives will take a back seat in their pandering for votes, as it is their position that they have us firmly ensconced in their camp, so therefore we are unimportant.

Birds of a feather... Evidently Corker will NOT be in attendance.

Yes they still have an office in Jackson. I ran up against them last year when they tried to add back in the nonsense about all handgun purchases having to be approved by the Chief of Police etc., the old standard stuff. We shut down the City Council meeting and went into a sidebar, and they withdrew their push, once they saw I had done my homework. I even had the New Chief of Police backing my stance. They do not like me much down here. They also had a presence when we beat them on Parks Carry.

He wants to reach across the isle more by getting his "independence" back: Lamar Alexander: 'Getting my independence back' - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com

The comments are up on the original post now.

After meeting him and Paul Helmke and wearing them out with questions at a debate at UT Martin a couple of years ago, I think your personification of the said Mr. Dread is spot on!

Mr. Lott showed up at the TFA Meeting last night. We had Adam Dread scheduled, Mr. Dread did not tarry long, nor would he speak while there was video equipment running...

That is exactly how I ended my comment to his article, but I suspect it will not pass liberal muster and will never make it to the comment section..

There is no mention of regulatory provision with regard to firearms anywhere in the Constitution, that document being a list of chains placed on the Federal Government by the States. Remember, government has no rights, they only have power given by the People or the States. The Amendments were intended to vouchsafe Rights of the People, further constraining the Federal Government in it's powers. The Second, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" was a further wrap of chain on the Federal Government with respect to the issue. It is the only mention, and is a plain rebuttal of the ability of the Feds to regulate arms ownership and carry by the citizen. The Tenth further limits the Fed, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It is specific, but anti-big government, so it too is under fire by those who would rule instead of govern.

The Strategic Plan for MTAS: http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/strategic_plan_june09.pdf Notice nowhere is vetting our City and County Laws against the Tennessee Constitution. Self serving leftist who have a choke hold on our taxes with no venue for the People to hold them accountable.

Not to be nit-picky, but MTAS is the Municipal Technical Advisory Service. MTAS Home CTAS is as OH shoot reported the County Technical Advisory Service. County Technical Assistance Service I portend that they hold more sway over our day to day lives than any other entity in the State, and as they are tax payer funded, their intrusions into issues that they are not directly responsible for (Legislatively) they are constantly guilty of Official Oppression. The day after the Legislature passed the Parks Bill, they sent a write up to every City and County government instructing them how to "Opt Out" of the provision. They are the "hired guns" of the Liberal establishment in Tennessee, and are the lightning rod for all Agenda 21 issues in the State.

MTAS and CTAS are functionaries of UT, Think Tanks if you will, on our payroll, and across the board are two of the most anti-gun establishments in the State. They are the chief lending institutions to the municipalities in the State, both County and City, far more powerful than anyone imagines, lawyers on the public dole, working to keep a liberal anti-gun agenda going in every venue they can hold sway over, and they have a lot of power. They will never allow carry on campus, it will have to come from the Legislature if it is going to happen. Of course, that is how the Constitution is set up, but our Governor wants his buds at UT to be the deciding voice on the issue, instead of following the law.

No, that would be the stake in the heart of his re-election, and Reid can not do without him.

Have a brother who was born with just his left hand, birth defect that left just the bones of the wrist with no hand at all. The "Nub" as he, and we, (his siblings) called it, was a wicked weapon in and of itself. The cartilage that would have separated the hand from the wrist formed a cap over the fused bones, making it the most effective sternum poker imaginable, but I digress. Tore a rotator cuff badly whilst living in Texas in my early 20's, he was out in Ft. Worth working for me at the time. Trying to learn at that advanced age to perform the most normal functions one handed, such as tying shoes etc. was one thing. Doing necessary sanitary functions with the off hand required some training as well. He semi smirked at my first lament of having my right arm tied up for six weeks, I got no sympathy from him at all, but did have a very apt teacher on how to survive the world one handed. I learned then how to work my weapons one handed, and have practiced off hand shooting ever since. It was the only silver lining in that cloud.