Welcome to Tennessee, the future police state. Governor Bill Lee’s special summer session proved to be everything I said it would be and more. It appears that many of our sellout politicians believe that Big Brother knows best and our state needs more government overreach.

I have been warning for some time now that the mental health initiatives were nothing more than a gun grab. What better way to disarm the population than by diagnosing as many people as possible with a mental illness? You heard me right, they aim (no pun intended) to take your guns. They knew the pushback would be far too great if they tried to accomplish it outright, so they came up with what they thought was a covert way to accomplish their goal. Our legislature didn’t disappoint.

Let’s take a look at some of the proposed legislation that sought to create “red flags,” which would deny residents their Second Amendment rights, and legislation that seeks to promote a nanny state.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but I’ll cite a few recent items that I found noteworthy:

HB 7034 (R-Sexton) requires the court to order a mental health assessment and requires the defendant to undergo treatment and the monitoring of drug intake. This would give the court the right to force an individual into medical treatment.

SB 7030 (R-Taylor) allows the TBI to inspect records of a juvenile in a court proceeding.

SB 7069 (D-Akbari) would allow people to be detained for the purpose of a mental health examination and care or treatment if a law enforcement officer deems it necessary. Evidently our lawmakers believe that law enforcement officers should have the jurisdiction to detain a citizen for the sole purpose of a mental health examination. How could that go wrong? Right? Law enforcement officers are not trained medical professionals, yet this proposed bill would give them the authority of one.

HB 7072 (R-Sexton) is another slippery slope of data collection and the creation of databases that can be used to communicate across the state. I remember when this began in education, and was soon followed up with a national interoperable database used in the data mining of our children. Many Tennessee officials seem to believe that Big Brother should be able to data mine and track you!

HB 7036 (R-Sexton) seeks the “emergency detention” of individuals with mental illness or serious emotional disturbances and those who are deemed to need care, treatment or training. Who would determine exactly who would qualify for “emergency detention”? What qualifications do they have that would allow them to make such an assessment?

HB 7021 (D-A. Davis) specifically addresses the protection of healthcare providers providing gender-affirming care, making “frightening them” a Class E felony. Ironic that schools are loading up on mental health professionals that will be providing said care to our children in government schools. What happens if a parent doesn’t agree with the gender-affirming care being prescribed in schools? Would they then be charged with a Class E felony if they somehow “frightened” the healthcare provider?

Then there is the legislation that R-Cepicky sponsored. HB 7023 hopes to place a law enforcement officer in every school. This would certainly make it more convenient to enforce much of the legislation that has been introduced. Remember, legislation has been introduced that will allow individuals to be detained for the sole purpose of mental health examinations.

HB 7009 (R-Gillespie) seeks to establish a student loan repayment grant in order to attract more mental health professionals in the state who will subsequently diagnose more of our residents with mental illnesses.

HB 7076 (D-Freeman) requires the Department of Education to hire more school counselors. I have previously addressed what school counselors are propagating. In 2022 I warned that Tennessee school counselors were aligned with the American School Counselor Association and the NEA and that they would be endorsing legislation to increase the numbers of school counselors, social workers and psychologists in all 50 states—and the tax payers would be footing the bill.

HB 7061 (D-Love) is a bill targeting the utilization of federal grant programs to extend mental health services in schools. As I have said many times before, schools have become medicalized. The money is flowing from multiple departments through the federal government pipeline.

Tennessee is not the conservative, freedom-minded state that many believe it to be. Instead, we are quickly becoming a nanny state in which your lawmakers plan to pass laws in order to implement their agenda. That agenda is to strip away your rights so that you will fall into lockstep. Conservative lawmakers who are sponsoring and voting for legislation that seeks to strip away our rights are attempting to wrap their agenda up into the mental health package.

Recently someone said to me, “Take a piece of legislation and then ask yourself, ‘How could my worst enemy use it against me?’” Take a hard look at the aforementioned bills and ask yourself that question. Do you really think that these pieces of legislation were introduced in the best interest of the residents of the state of Tennessee?

In Tennessee we have experienced a mass influx of individuals who fled police states. They chose Tennessee because they believed the lie that this state was red and that it would provide them with the freedoms they deserve. Unfortunately, we are not the promised land. We are rapidly advancing toward the same climate that so many were desperate to escape. It is time for the freedom-loving, liberty-minded residents of this state to get their heads out of the sand. Our children are at stake. Our state is at stake. Our Republic is at stake. If you are waiting for a politician to save you, you will be sorely disappointed. The solution lies with us, the people.

Help isn’t coming from any “hill.” We have to help ourselves. If you are looking for solutions and would like to know how grassroots organizations like Free YOUR Children are working to educate and implement change, you can reach me at freeyourchildren@gmail.com.