GOP senators huddle with Haslam before gun vote

Friday, February 1, 2013, Vol. 37, No. 5

NASHVILLE (AP) - Speaker Ron Ramsey and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee met with Gov. Bill Haslam for nearly an hour before heading to a meeting to vote on a bill seeking to allow handgun carry permit holders to store firearms in the vehicles no matter where they are parked.

Ramsey, a Blountville Republican, told The Associated Press afterward that the meeting on Tuesday was meant to explain the GOP senators' position on the bill to governor, who has expressed reservations about stripping schools and colleges of the ability to keep guns from being brought on campus.

Ramsey wouldn't say whether the meeting had changed Haslam's position on the bill.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote on its version of the bill later on Tuesday.