MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Election officials in Memphis decided Tuesday to remove three gun control issues from the November ballot after top Republican state leaders threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in state funding.
On Monday, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins sent a letter to the Shelby County Election Commission warning that the gun control measures violated several Tennessee laws, making them null and void and unable to be placed on the ballot. The letter came hours after House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate President Randy McNally issued their ultimatums for state funding.
Goins added that “unequivocal statements from the General Assembly” left “no authority” for Memphis officials to propose such amendments to the city’s charter. Goins also raised concerns that the city had not properly followed the public notice procedures required to put a referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot.
In a statement, Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips said the state elections coordinator provides guidance to the commission on how to conduct elections, “and we will follow his direction.”
“If the city of Memphis decides to challenge this interpretation, we will respect the court’s final decision,” Phillips said.
Earlier this year, the Memphis City Council approved a proposal asking voters whether they wanted to amend the city’s charter to require a permit to carry a firearm, ban the possession of AR-15-style rifles and implement a so-called “red flag” ordinance, which would allow law enforcement officers to confiscate firearms from people who pose an imminent danger to themselves or others.
The council had acknowledged at times that it risked angering the Republican-dominated Legislature because the measures would likely run afoul of Tennessee’s lax gun laws.
Still, council members representing the large, left-leaning, black-majority city said they were willing to take the risk.
“If the General Assembly wants to punish us and our citizens for asking for their help, we will do so appropriately, but that would be absolutely heartbreaking,” Councilman Chase Carlisle said during a 2023 council meeting.
In 2021, Republican lawmakers and GOP Gov. Bill Lee signed into law permitless carry of handguns. In May of this year, they banned local cities and counties from implementing their own red flag laws. Meanwhile, many within that same Republican supermajority have resisted calls to impose restrictions on firearms, an effort that has only intensified after a gunman killed three adults and three 9-year-olds at a Nashville private school last year.
The continued push to put gun control issues before Memphis voters not only prompted top Republican state lawmakers to threaten to pull funding, but Secretary of State Tre Hargett warned that his office would not approve the Memphis ballot if it included gun initiatives.
Last year, Memphis received nearly $78 million in sales tax revenue from the state. The city currently operates on a budget of $858 million.
“Guns pose a different risk to Memphis residents than they do to some other municipalities, but we understand that we must work with our state to determine a set of tools to restore peace to our community,” Mayor Paul Young said in a statement in response to the Legislature’s ultimatum. “What happens next is up to the voters and the legislature.”
McNally praised the election board’s decision, saying he appreciated that the panel “recognized that the county cannot make state law.”
Members of the Tennessee Legislature, which has a white majority, have long criticized Memphis leaders, particularly over the way they have managed the city’s crime rate, and have questioned the way black leaders have handled the problem. In 2023, the city saw a record 398 murders, while burglaries soared to more than 14,000.
According to preliminary figures from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the number of reported crimes in Memphis in the first half of 2024 was below the level of the first half of 2023 in nearly all major categories, including violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Confidence in police plummeted further this year when Republican lawmakers and the governor approved a bill to roll back traffic stop reforms put in place after officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols last year.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson, who represents a district in Memphis and was one of two black Democratic lawmakers in the state who were briefly expelled from the Legislature for protesting the lack of action following the Nashville school shooting, said the election commission’s decision was “dangerous to democracy” and he hoped the City Council would take legal action.
“I am outraged and disappointed that the Shelby County Election Commission felt it had to acquiesce to the tyrannical and authoritarian actions of the Republican leaders of this state,” Pearson said. “They are abusing their positions and authority to deliberately circumvent the will of the people of our city.”
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Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee.
