VOL. 133 | NO. 180 | Tuesday, September 11, 2018
By Sam Stockard, Special to The Daily News
Updated 4:38PMTwo Republican Shelby County legislators seeking re-election received “gun sense candidate” ratings this year from the weapons safety group Moms Demand Action while also netting good marks from the National Rifle Association, a distinction their Democratic opponents are questioning.
State Sen. Brian Kelsey[1], a Germantown Republican, and Rep. Mark White[2], a Memphis Republican, landed the designation after taking a survey this spring in which they pledged to vote in favor of gun safety legislation if elected, according to the website gunsensevoter.org[3]. The organization wasn’t clear on what legislation they pledged to support.
“They make a lot of sense to me,” White said of Moms Demand Action, whom he met with last spring during contentious debate about legislation to arm teachers after a Florida school shooting. White opposed allowing teachers to be armed in Tennessee schools.
Kelsey’s campaign issued this statement when asked whether his NRA rating clashes with the “gun sense candidate” designation. “Sen. Kelsey is the only Tennessee Republican both to be a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate and to receive A ratings from the NRA because he has taken a reasonable approach to gun legislation. He believes that citizens who go through the process of training and receiving a license should be able to carry firearms.”
Their Democratic opponents, though, are trying to figure out how they received the designation, considering Kelsey, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, holds a 93 percent rating with the NRA and White got an endorsement from the NRA, which doesn’t always
