Draft proclamation lays out the narrow focus of Gov. Bill Lee’s special session

(This story was updated after Gov. Bill Lee issued the special session proclamation.)

Gov. Bill Lee still wants lawmakers to consider temporary mental health order of protection, according to a draft document obtained by Tennessee Lookout laying out the 18 topics lawmakers will be allowed to debate at the upcoming special session.

The topics are very similar to the ones Lee laid out to reporters at a news conference last week. 

Lee has advocated for these orders of protection— sometimes called red flag laws — since March, after three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Lawmakers declined to debate an order of protection law while still in session earlier this year, but since then, Lee has spent the summer lobbying lawmakers on the proposal.

Publicly, very few Republican lawmakers have supported the idea. Last week, the Tennessee Republican Executive Committee called on Lee to cancel the special session opposing the idea.

Also opposed to the proposal is the Tennessee Firearm Association. But, a new group with the support of some Covenant parents called Voices for a Safer Tennessee has been running advertisements supporting an order of protection law. 

All the other topics Lee is allowing lawmakers to debate involve mental health services, law enforcement or the courts.

Members of the Democratic legislature leadership were quick to respond to the proclamation.

“A promise to do something to stop future shootings was made to Covenant parents, but sadly this proclamation eliminates many paths forward,” said Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis. “While the narrow focus of this special session is frustrating, it will not stop Senate Democrats from fighting for reforms that directly address the epidemic of gun violence in our communities.

House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, said in a statement, “I know that he was under tremendous pressure from his own party to call off the special session, but I was hoping for a serious discussion about gun reform in Tennessee.  The number of firearms in our state is staggering and has been since we passed the open carry and guns in trunks laws.”