Tennessee lawmakers passed three bills in the special session. Here's a closer look at the impact

Held in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in March, lawmakers ended an August special session this week on public safety with no major action on gun control.

And critics say the three bills the House and Senate passed have little significance since they essentially ask state agencies to do work they’ve already been doing in some fashion.

For example, one bill asks law enforcement to distribute free gun locks to residents, which was being done by some agencies before the new law.

Another bill codifies an executive order from Gov. Bill Lee that went into effect earlier this year shortening the time frame for court clerks to report criminal case information to the state background check system.

A third bill asks the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to provide an update on the state of human trafficking. TBI already tracks this data but said it will provide a report where all the information can be found in one place.

Lee called lawmakers back in August with the goal of passing public safety laws, but the special session devolved into chaos when the House and Senate hit a stalemate, leaving dozens of House bills on the table.

In news conferences at the Capitol, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers said they were frustrated that more couldn’t be done.

“It’s been a complete waste of time, it’s been a waste of taxpayer money,” said House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis. “People expected us to do something to make the public safer. We did nothing.”

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, said Tennesseans are “just a little bit safer” with the new measures passed, but “but not enough.”

Meanwhile, gun control advocates and parents of Covenant students slammed lawmakers for taking no meaningful action on child safety.

Covenant parent Mary Joyce, whose 9-year-old daughter lost three of her classmates, said she and other parents will have to face their children with disappointment.

“They will ask what our leaders have done over the past week and a half to protect them,” Joyce said in a news conference. “As a mother, I'm going to have to look at my 9 year old in the eye and tell her: nothing.”

Here is a closer look at what lawmakers did pass, and what it means for public safety:

Free gun locks

Tennessee is facing an epidemic of stolen guns, with a record 1,378 stolen from cars in Nashville last year. Lawmakers and gun control advocates have long pushed for a safe storage bill that would penalize irresponsible gun owners for leaving unsecured guns in cars.

But their hands were tied after Lee in the perimeters for the special session barred any potential penalties for those who fail to safely store their firearms.

Republican lawmakers’ solution? A free gun lock program and no more sales taxes on gun safes.

House Bill 7012 directs the Tennessee Department of Safety to provide free firearm locks to residents upon request.

The agency previously had a lock giveaway program and had excess locks on hand.

Before the special session, the Metro Nashville Police Department in August launched a free lock giveaway. The department ordered 200 locks for the first round and has 300 more on the way, a spokesperson said.

The department said it does not track how many locks have been given away.

The bill also exempts sales tax for firearm safes and firearm safety devices, and requires that all gun safety courses have a safe storage component, which most courses already have.

But as a state with a permitless carry law, there is no requirement that residents go through a safety course before buying a handgun.

TBI reporting timeframe 

The governor’s executive order in April reduced the timeframe from 30 days to 72 hours for court clerks to report updated criminal case information to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The TBI oversees the state background check system for gun purchases but it relies on timely and accurate reporting from courts and law enforcement agencies.

House Bill 7013 codifies the governor’s executive order. But while meant to speed up the reporting process, it does not address the larger concerns outlined in a TBI report this year noting that the agency will continue to struggle with timely reporting due to lack of technology and a unified court system.

The bill also does not address the agency’s backlog of hundreds of thousands of court cases not yet linked to criminal histories.

A House bill that would have developed a centralized court system for electronic case filing was quashed in the special session, but lawmakers are hopeful a law will be passed in the regular session in January.

TBI officials have said a centralized court system for Tennessee would help with the reporting process.

As for the shorter reporting timeframes, the TBI said it does not track whether agencies are complying, and there is no penalty for agencies that don’t comply.

While TBI does not track compliance, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the process has been “working well” as clerks try to meet the deadline.

“I have full faith and confidence in our court clerks that they're going to make every effort to comply with the law,” he said in an special session committee hearing.

The bill also requires that all court information is reported to TBI electronically. The agency said about 3% of counties still send in case dispositions by mail or fax.

Human trafficking

With growing nationwide attention to the issue of child sex trafficking, House Bill 7041 directs the TBI to submit a report on the state of human trafficking to the governor's office and legislature by December.

A TBI official in a committee meeting said the agency already collects and manages this data for different reports, but it will provide a full report for lawmakers where the information can all be found in one place.

More than two dozen leaders from both chambers gathered for a news conference during the special session to announce the state’s plan to fight human trafficking.

Sen. Ken Yager, a co-sponsor, called it a form of modern slavery.

Yager, R-Kingston, lawmakers need an update from TBI’s most recent report in 2013.

Johnson said lawmakers are planning for a “robust package” next year to fight the issue.

“We are going to make Tennessee a leader in ending this evil practice in the United States of America,” he said.

Reach Kelly Puente at kpuente@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN special session passed 3 bills. Will they have an impact?