Anyone who obtains a permit in Tennessee may be able to carry any kind of firearm, including rifles and other long guns, according to a proposal in the state legislature.
The state currently offers concealed handgun carry permits and enhanced handgun carry permits.
While the latter is open to anybody who can demonstrate their proficiency with a handgun by military service or prior completion of a training course, the former requires participants to finish a handgun safety course that includes classroom and firing range hours.
The law would make those permits applicable to any firearm that an individual owns, rather than just handguns.
Additionally, it would amend state laws that allows those with handgun permits from other states to carry handguns, allowing them to carry any firearm in Tennessee as long as they have a valid permission from another state.
Representative Rusty Grills (R-Newbern) presented HB 1189, which the House Civil Justice Committee somewhat condemned.
The bill, according to him, would “put the state more in line with what the Constitution originally meant.” He added that legislation allowing the carrying of long firearms existed in other states.
In his speech, Richard Archie of the Tennessee Firearms Association defended the bill by pointing to centuries-old statutes and legal precedence that date back to Tennessee’s origins.
He claimed that in 1989, the state modified its rules that had previously permitted the carrying of long weapons, and he wished for the state to return to its previous state.
When asked if the law would permit him to carry firearms inside retail establishments, Representative Ron Travis (R-Dayton) replied that it would.
In response to a question from Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), he stated that the bill would cover the sale of AR-15-style guns in retail establishments.
“We always need, when we’re talking about the Tennessee Constitution granting the right to bear arms, is that the reason we can create some rules is because in that exact same sentence, it says that the legislature has the right regulate weapons in Tennessee for the safety of the Constitution,” Johnson stated.
The state would essentially permit individuals to carry “common use weapons” if the bill is approved, according to Archie and Representative Chris Todd (R-Madison County), a word that judges have said included firearms that are not “dangerous and unusual.”
Following Archie’s remarks, a few state law enforcement officials opposed the bill. Among them was Elizabeth Stroecker from Homeland Security and the Department of Safety.
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Although Stroecker acknowledged that she could see Grills “was coming from” with the idea, she said law enforcement was worried that the proposal would cause problems akin to those observed in other states that permit the open carrying of rifles and other firearms.
She claimed that bringing “large rifle, high-capacity weapons” to places of worship and schools, or to locations like the Department of Children’s Services, where tensions can run high, would result in “chaos.”
“It will cause a lot of people to be worried, and they will then be calling law enforcement, saying, ‘Hey, we’re in a lockdown. Can you please come out and get rid of this person, or make this person leave?’ And law enforcement’s response will have to be, ‘They are lawfully doing that. They have to stay there,'” Stroecker stated. “We feel that the current law is sufficient to protect yourself, carrying a handgun.”
In response to Todd’s inquiry regarding the 2022 Supreme Court “Bruen decision,” she added that she did not believe it was necessary to create more security problems in Tennessee and that there was misunderstanding about it.
According to her, it stated that New York had enacted limits that were too capricious and unrelated to a legitimate regulation, but it did not rule that states could not regulate firearms.
Stroecker’s worries were echoed by Jimmy Musice of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police and the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association.
He claimed that if the bill is approved, law enforcement officials around the state are worried about how they will handle service requests, particularly in places like polling stations.
“It could be intimidating to some, and really, the problem that the local law enforcement is going to have is, ‘How do we handle these individuals?'” he stated. “I don’t think anyone is really concerned about the no-agitators. But the reality is that these will exist.”
The Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel, Matt Perry, then opposed the bill and repeated Musice and Stroecker’s concerns.
He stated that after Texas approved a similar statute, there were reports of radicals intimidating individuals there, and law enforcement wanted to prevent it from happening in Tennessee.
By a vote of 4–3, the bill was approved by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on March 26. On April 1, the Senate version of the plan will be addressed.
This Information has been sourced from wbir.
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