NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Some view him as the one man, or at least the symbolic figure, standing between the Tennessee General Assembly and some common-sense gun laws following the mass shooting at Nashville's Covenant School.
John Harris, who heads the Tennessee Firearms Association, sometimes uses his personal Facebook page to express solidarity with ideas expressed by anti-government groups, even white nationalist groups.
While lobbying Tennessee legislators on gun rights, he openly proclaims that one day armed citizens may need to take "a road trip" to the Capitol to overthrow the state's duly elected officials.
Even as Tennesseans urgently look for some way to end the epidemic of gun violence, Harris is adamant: gun rights are more important than public safety.
And, most critically, he has the ears of a significant number of Republican lawmakers.
"He's influential, but frankly he's already speaking to a group that's committed," said former state Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville. "It's not like many of the Republican legislators up there need any convincing."
"They've all been caught up in this crazy, cult-like behavior of gun worship."
In fact, when protesters descended on the state Capitol following the Covenant shooting, many saw young people who are fed up with having to fear being shot at school.
But not John Harris.
In an interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates, Harris said, "I think it's a curious question as to why kids that should have maybe been in school -- it wasn't a school holiday -- why they were pulled out and brought down there -- and did they really understand why they were there or were they just props for other protesters?"
That's right — the head of the Tennessee Firearms Association called them "props."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked the gun lobbyist, "So you don't look at that and say this community is in pain?"
"Well, no, I think the community is," he responded, "but I don't know that necessarily means you should pull students away from their course work and class work to take them down to be part of a political statement by a gun control agenda."
Just like every other mass shooting in America, the Covenant shooting now has Tennessee looking for common-sense gun solutions.
And Harris had an idea.
"For example, I think it is productive and we've supported legislation that would increase the training and exposure in the school systems to students so that guns are no long er a mystical item or something you only see on video games," he said.
We followed up, "We have three 9-year-old children who are dead and three adults, and your answer is more exposure to guns?"
"I think more exposure is absolutely a good thing," Harris answered. "It's part of our constitutional fabric."
In fact, the gun lobbyist argued that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion last year, in a case known as Bruen, means that Tennessee lawmakers can't do anything that wasn't done when the Second Amendment was approved.
"Thomas says quite clearly in the Bruen decision that the debate about what is reasonable or permissible and what isn't has already been had. It occurred at the adoption of the Second Amendment, which was 1791."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted, "In 1791, though, you didn't have guns that could kill dozens of people in a minute."
Harris answered, "We had guns that could kill people, and whether it's one person or multiple, it's still a death."
It's a stunningly blunt attitude that Harris admits not everyone will understand, including Mike Stewart.
"John Harris thinks when you go to Target with your children to pick up shampoo that it should be perfectly normal for a bunch of nincompoops to be wandering around the Target parking lot with assault rifles," Stewart said.
"He wants to make sure that normal citizens can't do anything about it."
In fact, before Covenant, lawmakers appeared ready to approve a bill pushed by Harris to allow anyone as young as 18 to carry any kind of firearm practically anywhere in public -- no questions asked.
We asked Harris, "If you get your way, if a person is standing out on the street with a couple of AR15s, handguns on the hip, that's none of the police business?"
"Correct."
"You're not even willing to come out and say, yeah, we should ban guns from school property?"
"No, not until the court looks at that 1791 standard."
Take a look at Harris' Facebook page and you'll see where the gun lobbyist's views could lead — nestled among posts suggesting hitting Muslim countries with nuclear bombs, images mocking Black Lives Matter protesters, and a distorted (some would say racist) photo of then-First Lady Michelle Obama.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates handed him another Facebook post.
"Here was something that you shared about a national group that calls for rebellion against Barack Obama. 'How many Tennessee Sheriff's are on board with this? Call yours and ask them.'"
Harris' response?
"Yeah, I don't say that I am for it or against it. I want people to check with their sheriffs, who is the highest ranking constitutional officer in the county, and see where they are.
We pressed, "You didn't condemn it though."
"No," he admitted.
There's also a post from an anti-government group, the Three Percenters, celebrating the notion that it only took a small number of revolutionaries to start a war.
"Well, yeah, it's just one of the Facebook memes that we picked up and put around."
There was another post from the League of the South, a white nationalist group, asking "who should govern the South?" and making the case to say "yes to independence."
"That's a group that says do we, do states have secession rights?" Harris said, expressing his agreement with that notion.
There's even a post where Harris suggested that, instead of continuing "trying the voting booth," armed Tennesseans may one day need to "take a 'road trip' to Nashville."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates pressed, "You think that Tennesseans may one day need to take up arms and come to the state Capitol and overthrow state government?"
"Well, the state constitution specifically says that is their right," he insisted.
And if those notions of "freedom" mean that innocent people continue to die, John Harris said that's just the way it is.
"The Supreme Court says the debate over public safety as a relevant factor in establishing gun control policy was resolved in 1791. That, to me, answers the question."
Instead of red-flag laws that take guns out of the hands of people who are mentally ill, John Harris said he prefers to lock up the people instead of their guns, forcing them to get treatment if they are a danger to themselves or others.
If lawmakers do pass a red-flag law, he has promised to find primary opponents for any Republicans who go along, which could make it harder to get anything done.
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
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