The battle over the Memphis referendum on gun control is really pretty ridiculous.

I mean, it’s not like Memphis can do anything with the results of said referendum except, at most, use them to say whether or not the people of the city want gun control. Well, Memphis is just one city and most people in Tennessee don’t actually care what people there want. They get to vote in elections like everyone else and if there aren’t enough there to change things, why should anyone trip over themselves to accommodate them.

And yet, the city is bound and determined to do it, and the courts have said they can.

Well, the state won’t appeal the decision, but the attorney general is still going to let people know what he thinks about it.

Tennessee’s attorney general is calling Memphis’ effort to place a referendum on gun control measures in the city a “futile stunt” that could incur hefty legal fees.

However, the office will not file an emergency appeal to stop them.

“These ballot questions are a fraud on the voters of Memphis,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement. “They will not change the law. This is a futile stunt that wastes time and money when the city council should focus on ensuring existing laws are enforced.”

He continued, “However, we respect the court’s analysis of whether the vote should proceed and will not file an emergency appeal. This is Memphis’s mistake to make and will ultimately be Memphis’s mistake to pay for, as the state preemption law authorizes triple attorney’s fees against cities in violation.”

Skrmetti isn’t wrong here. It is a fraud.

See, what Memphis officials are doing is trying to deflect the blame for their city falling apart. They want to make it look like their hands are tied and are trying to put it all on the state.

Yet the truth of the matter is that most other cities in Tennessee don’t have the problems Memphis is having. If it were about the gun laws–which every city has to deal with equally–then why aren’t they having the same issues with violent crime?

The truth is that Memphis city officials aren’t taking care of business. They’re not doing any of the tried-and-true strategies for reducing crime and they want to put it on the state.

What’s more, because it’s on the ballot, a lot of people are going to expect their vote to lead to action. It won’t. It can’t. So it’s nothing but a misdirection that will leave a lot of voters disappointed in the long run because elections have consequences, but referendums often don’t.

Calling it a fraud is probably pretty accurate, all things considered.

However, Memphis officials aren’t really worried about that right now. What they want to do is kick the can down the road a bit and hope things change enough that they can claim credit for it.

Which may actually work. Homicide rates spiked in 2020, but have been trending downward since. It may drop enough that Memphis officials can claim victory or something.

But I’m doubtful because, as Skrmetti notes, it’s not like they’re doing their jobs now. That drop will only be significant enough to notice if they step up and do something that would actually warrant them saying they did something for a change.

It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here.