Last week, Governor Bill Lee announced the signing of an executive order to strengthen background checks for guns in Tennessee, as legislators continue to debate the topic of gun control in response to the Covenant School shooting.
The executive order purported to have three main objectives:
1. If someone commits a crime, relevant criminal information would now be entered into the Tennessee Instant Check System (TICS) or provided to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) within 72 hours after an entity like law enforcement learns of it.
2. Ensure that circuit, chancery and general sessions courts “accurately, completely, and timely” submit relevant information to the TBI’s FlexCheck database, or directly with the TBI.
3. The TBI will review the TICS system to see if any improvements can be made, and report their findings to the governor and legislative leaders by June 10th of this year.
He also asked for an “order of protection” to keep guns away from individuals who law enforcement officials deem to be ‘dangerous.’
