Strickland pushes for stronger federal and state gun laws
Memphis youths marched during the Unity Walk against Violence at Hilcrest High School in Whitehaven on February 27, 2021. (Ziggy Mack/Special to The Daily Memphian)
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland called Friday, May 27, for “strong federal laws with reasonable restrictions on weapons” and “stronger state laws punishing gun crimes and more intervention with those at-risk of using guns.”
Strickland made the call in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting Tuesday in which an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people — 19 elementary school students and two teachers.
“This is uniquely an American challenge,” Strickland wrote in his weekly email.
“We must all recognize a fundamental change in our society,” he said. “The biggest difference today with crime versus years ago, including as recently as 10 years ago, is the proliferation of guns.”
He also cited comments by former U.S. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, who in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting questioned conservative interpretations of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right to bear arms.
“I can’t imagine this is what the Founding Fathers hoped for or intended,” Frist tweeted Wednesday. “We can find ways to preserve the intent of the Second Amendment while also safeguarding the lives of our children.”
— Bill Frist, M.D. (@bfrist) May 25, 2022
Strickland’s email appeal follows a Tuesday tweet from Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who said the shootings should “shock us all into action.”
Today’s elementary school shooting in Texas should shock us all into action. Mass shootings don't have to be our norm. But I fear nothing will change until we hold legislators accountable to make common sense gun reforms a priority.
— Mayor Lee Harris (@MayorLeeHarris) May 24, 2022
“Mass shootings don’t have to be our norm,” he tweeted. “But I fear nothing will change until we hold legislators accountable to make common sense gun reforms a priority.”
Strickland also renewed his call Friday for stronger state laws on sentences for gun violence and his backing of the new state truth in sentencing law that requires those sentenced for violent crimes to serve their complete sentences. There would be no parole or probation unless they get credit for rehabilitation programs completed.
“If we are serious about gun crime, gun crime should result in serious prison time,” Strickland said.
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Jim Strickland Lee Harris Bill Frist Uvalde Texas school shootingBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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