FRIENDLY FIRE

Tennessee Gov’s Office Rips NRA for Plan to ‘Round Up Mentally Ill People’

A memo from Lee’s administration tore into the NRA for proposing the involuntary commitment of people with mental illness as a solution to gun violence.

In a rare Republican rebuke, the office of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee tore into the National Rifle Association for its plan to “round up” people with mental illness as a proposed solution to gun violence. In a memo from earlier this year, Lee’s administration criticizes proposals from the NRA and other gun rights advocates in the state to involuntarily commit people with mental illness—instead of just stopping them from getting guns, as the governor has suggested. According to the Associated Press, Lee’s memo calls out the gun rights group for what it deems an “impractical” and overreaching plan to deprive people with mental illness of their civil liberties. “Rather than institutionalizing someone and limiting their gun rights for life,” the memo says Lee’s plan instead “would temporarily remove a firearm from a dangerous person and require an appropriate level of mental health treatment.”