Tennessee State Representative Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) filed a bill last week that will allow Tennessee gun owners with an enhanced handgun carry permit to bring their firearm into buildings that otherwise prohibit or restrict carrying weapons.
A second bill filed by Barrett, which would prevent individuals, businesses, or governments in Tennessee from prohibiting firearms, is scheduled to be heard this week.
Barrett’s HB 2032 would remove “the criminal offense of possessing a weapon in a building that restricts weapons” and allow “a person with an enhanced handgun carry permit to carry a handgun into a business that prohibits or restricts penalties for violations of certain firearms provision.”
The new bill filed as HB 0746 was placed on the calendar for the State House Civil Justice Committee to consider on January 31.
That bill would strike “the authorization for an individual, corporation, business entity, or local, state, or federal government entity to prohibit the possession of weapons” in a specific area. Also, it would similarly remove the criminal offense related to having a weapon in a restricted area.
An identical bill, SB 1037, already exists in the Tennessee Senate, previously filed by Tennessee State Senator John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) in January 2023. Senate bill was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in March 2023.
Ahead of the current legislative session, Barrett said during an appearance on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy that he intends to make firearms policy a key part of his legislative agenda in 2024.
Citing the Tennessee General Assembly’s refusal to back red flag laws in 2023 and the recent news that Governor Bill Lee is not interested in another attempt to pass the legislation, Barrett said he would file legislation to prevent Tennessee counties and municipalities from passing their own red flag legislation.
Barrett told Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, that “common-sense legislation” would make Tennessee law “consistent from Bristol to Memphis.”
Last year, the Tennessee Firearms Association announced it would file a lawsuit against Tennessee and Lee over the the state’s statute that forbids carrying firearms in public parks, greenways, and campgrounds, as well as the state’s “gun free zone statute” that the group argues makes it a criminal offense in Tennessee “to carry any firearm anywhere in the state with the ‘intent to go armed,'” including “in an individual’s own home or while on their own property.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jody Barrett” by Jody Barrett.Â
As a free market conservative and believer in property rights. I can expect my my compatriots two point out their belief that the State should not interfere with property owners rights.
Well we crossed that bridge long ago.
Try putting a sign on the door that says no guns women or Mexicans. You’ll find out if you have private property rights.
How about those handicap accommodations in your bathrooms.
Try paying your employees five dollars an hour.
Nope. You lost your private business rights long ago. The State can tell you that citizens have a right to carry a weapon on your property to protect themselves.
I wonder how many people would be happy to learn that their Right to a Jury trial had been eliminated by “Tennessee Legislation”???
If you say they can’t do that, because it’s guaranteed by the Constitution and they can’t change the Constitution, you would be right,
But how many of you realize that the same “Bill of Rights” that guarantee a trial by Jury is also the same Bill of Rights that guarantees the “Second Amendment”.
And under the “Rules of Law”, if they have authority to legislate one right from citizens, they have the authority to legislate the entire Bill of Rights out of existence.
Is it “FAIR” to ask Cops and Military to take a chance on dying to keep Rights/Freedoms we are willing to surrender because Citizens gets killed???
The framers of the Constitution envisioned a nation of “Law ENFORCING CITIZENS”, making “Citizens Arrest”.
That authority, with the gun, is what they are trying to take from the citizens, and create a “Police STATE”, with them in “TOTAL CONTROL”.
“Uniform Commercial Code – As introduced, defines the term “central bank digital currency” and excludes the term from the definition of “money” for purposes of the Uniform Commercial Code. – Amends TCA Title 47″.
When three fourth (3/4) of the States approve this they will claim it amendment the Constitution and definition of money giving them “LEGAL CONTROL” of “ALL FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS”.
THE “IRS” AND “INCOME TAX” ARE “ILLEGAL” UNDER THE “CONSTITUTION”.
Just as all the “Second Amendment” legislation is “Illegal”.
Right on! Rock on! Common sense legislation that ends more target areas, i mean gun free zones, while reinforcing 2A.