Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is a Republican in a state that's about as pro-gun as they come. Yes, the governor had a special session to pass gun control, but nothing came out of it, and that's because so many other lawmakers are pro-gun.
Recently, a court decided that there was a problem with a state law and declared it unconstitutional.
Now, at least one pro-gun voice wanted the state to challenge the ruling, but that was to see a stronger decision come. Skrmetti is challenging, but not for that reason, and at least some people are more than a little worked up about that fact.
In a recent blog post, retired attorney Mark Pulliam came to the defense of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s choice to vigorously defend the state’s unconstitutional “intent to go armed” firearms statute. Pulliam claims this is merely routine duty for the AG. With all due respect to a fellow conservative voice, Mr. Pulliam is profoundly wrong.
On August 22, a three-judge panel in Gibson County Chancery Court delivered a landmark ruling: Tennessee’s “intent to go armed” statute violates both the Second Amendment and the state constitution. That this patently unconstitutional law even reached the courts is an embarrassment for a state as staunchly pro-Second Amendment as Tennessee, where grassroots support for gun rights stands stronger than Lookout Mountain.
At its core, Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1307(a)(1) declares: “A person commits an offense who carries, with the intent to go armed, a firearm or a club.” That’s the whole section of the statute—no qualifiers, no caveats. It bluntly criminalizes the very act of bearing arms, in direct defiance of our God-given right enshrined in both the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions. Anyone with basic reading comprehension and a shred of intellectual honesty can see it’s facially unconstitutional.
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Skrmetti chose to fight. He didn’t have to; he chose to. The distinction is critical. On September 9, 2025, his office declined to defend a statute criminalizing local officials for supporting sanctuary city policies, aligning with the ACLU in recognizing its constitutional flaws. T.C.A. § 8-6-109(b)(9) explicitly grants the AG discretion to forgo defending laws he deems unconstitutional. It’s crystal clear: If Skrmetti believed this gun statute violated the Second Amendment, he had no obligation to defend it. Mark Pulliam argues the AG shouldn’t “foil the will of the legislature” by picking and choosing laws to defend, conveniently ignoring that the legislature itself wrote T.C.A. § 8-6-109(b)(9) to grant exactly that authority. Skrmetti’s selective defense—passing on sanctuary city laws but championing this gun statute—reveals he knows his discretion and wields it deliberately.
I think bringing up the refusal to defend the statute criminalizing passing sanctuary laws, which are basically a decision to ignore federal immigration laws and to change the way the population of the state is shaped--thus giving more power to blue-voting urban areas--makes it hard for Skrmetti to make the claim that he's just doing his job.
He's already picked and chosen which laws he wants to defend, which means that every choice should be examined.
In this case, he's decided to defend an incredibly problematic gun control law that makes it so anyone lawfully carrying can be presumed to be a criminal. That's troubling in a constitutional carry state, to say the least.
The problem is that too many people out there are willing to put an "R" after their name, pretend to toe the conservative or libertarian line, but then are way too open to infringing on basic human liberties like the right to keep and bear arms.
This is what the problem has been down in Florida. They've had Democrats flip to Republican, say they believe Republican things, then defend gun control left and right. They're the epitome of the term RINO--Republican In Name Only--and they keep getting elected because that's all some people look at.
Tennesseeans have an obligation to make smart choices, just as the rest of us do. Sometimes, we all get it wrong, so I'm not picking on them about this.
But when someone like Skrmetti shows you who he is, you'd best believe him and vote accordingly.
