Tennessee has had a civilian handgun permit since May 1994. Tennessee’s original civilian handgun permit was renamed in 2019 as the “enhanced” permit. Nothing was enhanced or improved, it was just a new name. At present, thirty-six (36) states honor the Tennessee “enhanced” permit.
For the last several years, TFA has pushed legislation that would result in the adoption of “constitutional carry” in Tennessee with an optional permit. Seventeen states, including 4 that touch Tennessee, already have this type of law. This type of law merely says that if you can legally possess a firearm that you can carry it in public and there is no need for a state mandated training class, background check, payment of a fee to the state or a permit.
Rather than enact constitutional carry in 2019, the GOP controlled legislature passed legislation introduced by Rep. Andy Holt (R) and Sen. John Stevens (R) which created second type of permit in Tennessee – the “concealed only” permit. Tennessee Firearms Association opposed this legislation as unnecessary, unwise, and poorly written – yet it passed in part because a certain national so-called “gun advocacy” group’s TN lobbyist supported it.
While there are many reasons that the 2019 “concealed only” law was the wrong path for Tennesseans, one of TFA’s concerns was that the two permits had material differences other than just the “concealed only” requirement. One of those differences that might arise would be how other states would respond in the context of reciprocity to the fact that Tennessee has two permits. That concern has materialized. At least one state, North Dakota, has advised the Tennessee Department of Safety that it will honor the “enhanced” Tennessee permit (just as it had been doing) but not the new “concealed only” permit. It is entirely possible that other states may respond that they also will not honor the new, unnecessary, unneeded and poorly written “concealed only” permits.
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