Gun control referendum to be voted on by Memphians in 2024

The Memphis City Council on Tuesday evening passed a referendum allowing Memphians to vote on if people will be required to have a handgun permit in order to carry a handgun within Memphis city limits. All 12 members present voted in favor, while one member was absent.

The referendum also asks residents to vote on local extreme risk protection orders, along with banning the sale of assault rifles and possessing or carrying assault rifles within city limits.

"I want to be very clear about what we're doing here," Councilman Worth Morgan said prior to Tuesday's vote. "We, ourselves, will not be regulating or changing state law. But we will put the question to the people and ask how they want to be governed, and people will have the opportunity on the ballot to respond to that."

If voters were to pass the referendum in August 2024, it would amend the city's charter and would fly in the face of the state's permitless carry law that went into effect in 2021.

The state's permitless carry law allows Tennesseans to have both concealed and open-carry handguns without a permit. The age for permitless carry was lowered to 18 this year after a federal lawsuit.

The referendum asks voters three questions. The first focuses on permitless carry for handguns, the second on the sale and ownership of assault rifles within city limits, and the third asks if the city charter will allow extreme risk protection orders, sometimes called red flag laws.

Councilman Chase Carlisle said the referendum gives Memphians the chance to speak up about the proposition of gun control in Tennessee. While in committee, the referendum was pointed to as a sort of poll about how Memphians think gun control could help ensure safety.

"This is an opportunity for citizens in Memphis to speak," Carlisle said. "I think this is a good opportunity to let them speak and we'll roll the dice. If the [Tennessee] General Assembly wants to punish us, and punish our citizens for asking them for help, we will deal with that."

The referendum offers exemptions for assault weapons, allowing people who already own those firearms, and have a permit, to use them at a firing range and have them on their private property. It would only prevent people from carrying them in public.

The 12 present members that voted "yes" followed the vote with a round of applause. Councilwoman Rhonda Logan was the only member not present for Tuesday night's vote.

If passed by voters on Aug. 1, 2024, the ordinances would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

Any legal challenges to the ordinances would happen prior to the 2024 vote, Councilman Jeff Warren, one of the authors of the referendum, told The Commercial Appeal in May.

After passing the referendum, Warren said he was "really proud" that the council took this issue to Memphians.

"What I'm really proud of is that the council looked at this and thought it was wroth giving the people a chance to voice what they want when it comes to sensible gun reform," Warren said. "This is a national problem. If we, as a city, can be a leader and allow our people to vote, then hopefully, various legislative bodies that have the authority to legislate this will go ahead and listen to the people."

He said, as a physician, he said red flag laws could help curb suicide rates.

"The thing that I like best about it, as a doctor, a major cause of death from firearms in our country is suicide," he said. "We need to be able to have family members have the ability to have those guns removed from people until they can be treated."

Tennessee lawmakers, at the request of Gov. Bill Lee, are slated to return to Nashville on Aug. 21 for a special session to discuss potential gun-reform legislation.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphians to vote on local gun control referendum in August, 2024