Tennessee AG Skrmetti Supports DOJ Creation of Second Amendment Task Force

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti was among a group of 26 state attorneys general who expressed their support for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) new Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force created under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

On April 8, Bondi sent a memo to all DOJ employees announcing the creation of the task force, which, at the direction of President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” directs the attorney general to assess ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment and create a plan of action to “protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”

Last week, Skrmetti signed onto a letter led by West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey supporting the creation of the task force, likening it a “tool” to “protect our constitutional liberties.”

“[The task force] will create a critical space for the federal government to devise innovative strategies to use litigation and policy effectively in the fight to protect the Second Amendment. We applaud your choice to create it,” the attorneys general wrote.

The attorneys general expressed their concerns with the previous administration’s “misguided approach” to the Second Amendment, saying, “We saw a particularly troubling animus against the Second Amendment put into action in the last administration.”

“[T]he federal government took drastic actions against gun rights that showed no respect for law-abiding gun owners. The firearms industry, President Biden declared, was the “enemy.” Altogether, federal agencies stretched statutes and ignored facts on their way to trouncing on Second Amendment rights in a variety of contexts,” the state attorneys general explained.

“We are heartened to see that the federal government has now rejoined us in our fight for Second Amendment liberties,” the attorneys general added. “The American people need to know their Second Amendment rights will not continue to erode over time. This Task Force is an important leap forward to reverse such a terrible trend.”

In addition to West Virginia and Tennessee, the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming signed onto the letter sent to Bondi.

Skrmetti said he was “proud” to support the task force, adding, “The U.S. Constitution unambiguously protects the right to keep and bear arms just the same as it protects free speech, free exercise of religion, the right to counsel, and all the other rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.”

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Jonathan Skrmetti” by Tennessee Attorney General. Background Photo “Pam Bondi” by Department of Justice.