Update: Election officials in Memphis decided Tuesday to leave three gun control questions off the November ballot.
Republican leaders in the Tennessee House and Senate warned Memphis officials on Monday that if the city puts gun reform on the ballot this November, the state will withhold the city’s sales tax revenue.
In a joint statement, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Senate Speaker Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said that the legislature “will not tolerate any attempts to go rogue and perform political sideshows.”
“If they do not want to participate within the state and state laws, then they do not need to participate in the state’s successes,” the statement said.
It’s not the first time the state has opposed local initiatives in Memphis. Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a law reversing police reform that the city council had instituted after the death of Tyre Nichols.
Similar tensions between local and state officials characterized last year’s legislative session, when lawmakers set their sights on Nashville after the city declined to host the Republican National Convention. Nashville successfully challenged a number of those laws in court, including a measure that would’ve halved the number of seats on its Metro Council.
When the Memphis City Council passed the referendums last summer, Councilmember Chase Carlisle said the referendum gives Memphis voters a voice.
“I think this is a good opportunity to let them speak, and we’ll roll the dice. If the General Assembly wants to punish us and punish our citizens for asking them for help, we will deal with that,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle did not respond to WPLN’s request for comment by publication time.
If passed, the referendums would put Memphis at odds with state law. One measure on the ballot would attempt to end a 2021 law that allows people to carry guns without a permit. Another would bar people deemed dangerous to themselves or others from purchasing a firearm. That would contradict a law passed this year that bans local governments from instituting their own so-called red flag measures.
“The Tennessee Constitution clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of the state and local governments,” McNally said. “Shelby County needs to understand that despite their hopes and wishes to the contrary, they are constrained by these explicit constitutional guardrails.”
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