State of Tennessee fires another salvo in favor of firearm owners rights
Gov. Phil Bredesen signed legislation Friday that opens public parks to handguns, even though a deal to exempt local parks broke down.
Bredesen approved the bill, which is designed to let handgun permit holders carry their weapons into all green spaces in the state, despite a sponsor’s decision not to call it back. Bredesen had until the end of Friday to sign or veto the bill, or it would have become law automatically.
The decision came a day after the bill’s backers, Rep. Frank Niceley and Sen. Mae Beavers, told reporters that they had decided to recall their bill, which passed last week. They said they had intended to recall the bill to remove language covering parks owned by city or county governments.
Niceley and Beavers said Thursday that Bredesen had agreed, in exchange, not to veto the bill and other gun legislation pending in the statehouse. But Bredesen later said discussions about the bill had been held with a staffer, and he wasn’t aware of any veto deal.
That prompted Beavers to reverse course.
“There was no deal,” she said Friday, after the Senate adjourned for the weekend. “The governor started saying he wasn’t a part of the agreement, so we decided we wanted to go with our bill like it was.”
Despite the backers’ intentions, Bredesen’s signature does not mean handguns will now be allowed in all Tennessee parks.
A provision inserted to win over holdout lawmakers lets local governments identify certain parks where handguns are not allowed.
Bredesen urged city and county officials to take advantage of that clause.
“I do want to urge local governments to use the opt-out provisions of this bill to remove parks from its effect where they are located close to schools and other places where large numbers of children gather,” Bredesen wrote in a letter explaining his decision.
The measure was one of two firearms bills to become law Friday. Bredesen also allowed the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act to pass into law without his signature.
The act asserts that the federal government cannot regulate guns that are made in Tennessee and never cross out of the state. The law is based on a “fringe constitutional theory” that will not stand up in courts, Bredesen said.
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He also signed a measure Friday that allows shotgun and rifle owners to carry weapons and ammunition in the same part of the vehicle without a carry permit, as well as a bill that removes the requirement to list a Social Security number on an application for a gun safety course.
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Local debates expected
The passage of the guns-in-parks bill probably will set off a wave of local debates about where carry permit holders can take firearms.
Metro Council members Jerry Maynard and Megan Berry have already proposed an ordinance that would ban firearms in all Metro parks, reaffirming a longtime city policy. That bill is scheduled to come up Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Tennessee Firearms Association says it will fight local bans on handguns in parks, particularly along greenways and in large, secluded parks.
“That effort’s already under way,” said John Harris, the association’s executive director.
Handgun permit holders will be able to carry their weapons into state parks effective immediately, under the law.
They will be able to carry them into a local park effective Sept. 1, unless the local government has acted to ban handguns in the park before then.
