The Memphis City Council approved a referendum Tuesday to allow city residents to choose to implement and citywide “assault weapon” ban, a prohibition on constitutional carry, and a red flag law, among other gun controls.
WREG reported the approval of the referendum means the gun controls will be on the ballot November 5 and, if passed, would be added as amendments to the city charter.
Some of the gun controls:
- No person shall be allowed to carry a handgun in the City of Memphis without possessing a valid handgun carry permit.
- No person shall be allowed to carry, store, or travel with a handgun in a vehicle in the City of Memphis without possessing a valid handgun permit.
- It shall be unlawful for a person to store a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, or firearm ammunition, in a motor vehicle or boat while the person is not in the motor vehicle or boat unless the firearm or firearm ammunition is kept from ordinary observation and locked within the trunk, utility or glove box, or a locked container securely affixed to the motor vehicle or boat.
- The citizens of Memphis hereby find and declare that the proliferation and use of assault weapons pose a threat to the health, safety, and security of all citizens of Memphis.
- Hereafter, it shall be unlawful and prohibited for a person to possess or carry, openly or concealed, any assault rifles in the City of Memphis. Persons with valid handgun permits are exempt from this restriction when possessing or carrying an assault rifle on their privately owned property or at a shooting range.
- Hereafter, the commercial sale of assault rifles within the City of Memphis is unlawful and is hereby prohibited.
Although the Memphis City Council approved the referendum, the city is likely to face numerous lawsuits if the gun controls are approved by voters, and this is because of Tennessee’s preemption law.
As the NRA-ILA notes, “Almost all states today have a law prohibiting local jurisdictions from imposing gun control restrictions that are more severe than state law.”
Tennessee is one such state, and Gabby Giffords’ gun control group pointed out that Tennessee’s preemption law “prohibits local governments from regulating the possession, transportation or storage of a firearm or firearm ammunition by a handgun carry permit holder in such person’s vehicle while utilizing public or private parking areas.”
RELATED: AWR Hawkins — Well-Regulated Militia is Foundational to “Shall Not Be Infringed”
Moreover, in light of the preemption law, “localities do have the authority to regulate the possession of firearms – both handguns and long guns – on property owned or controlled by a local government.”
Additionally, Giffords’ gun control group explains, “Tennessee law authorizes parties to file civil suits against state and local governments or local government agencies, departments, or officials if they are adversely affected by an ordinance, resolution, policy, rule, or other enactment that is adopted or enforced in violation of the state’s preemption law, or by the defendant’s creation or maintenance of a gun owner registry in violation of Tennessee’s relevant law.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
