Tennessee Firearms Association has been aware for some time now that a major or significant “announcement” would be coming in the near future from the Tennessee Legislature and possibly Governor Lee regarding 2nd Amendment legislation in 2020. It appears that this anticipated announcement may come perhaps today, February 27, 2020, around 11:00 a.m. CST.
We have not confirmed but expect that the announcement may be for the filing of an “administration bill” which is a process whereby the governor can file legislation with designated House and Senate sponsors. If so, it will likely be as an amendment to an existing “do nothing” bill that has an unusually broad caption such as Senate Bill SB2671/HB2817.
As reported previously, TFA has been noting a pattern of comments from various legislators on and off the record and in committees about the issue of “constitutional carry” also known as “permitless carry”. This type of law already exists in 17 states including 4 that touch Tennessee. A subset of this law, “permitless open carry”, already exists in about 30 states and at one time actually the law in Tennessee until the Legislature repealed it several decades ago.
In the past Senator (retired) Mae Beavers consistently championed constitutional carry and continued to do so in 2018 in her bid for governor. For example, in 2014, she sponsored SB2424 which would have eliminated the need for a permit in Tennessee for those citizens who openly carried a handgun. It still allowed for permits for reciprocity purposes and it required permits for concealment. Significantly, Sen. Beavers was able to pass the bill on the Senate floor by a vote of 25-2-2 on April 8, 2014 only to see it killed by the House (which had at the time a Republican super majority!)
In 2016, Senator Mark Green carried it only to have it defeated by Republican senators in the Senate Judiciary committee. Numerous other bills on constitutional or permitless carry have been filed and failed in the last decade. But, the demand from citizens for constitutional carry has continued to grow.
In October 2019, Rep. Bruce Griffey and Senator Joey Hensley filed the first “constitutional carry” bill for 2020. In addition, other legislators are known to have been working on some form of constitutional carry legislation of varying degrees. Clearly, recent comments in committees such as the one by Rep. William Lambert when he was addressing HB2027 are indicators pointing toward increased support in the Tennessee Legislature for constitutional carry and eliminating some of the state imposed restrictions on citizens being able to carry a legally possessed firearm.
Passing constitutional carry, full constitutional carry, which allows for open or concealed carry, and which still provides for an optional free or low cost permit (such as for reciprocity) has been an issue that TFA has pursued for many, many years. We will see later today the details of what the Legislature and the Governor are planning to do and hinting will be a major 2nd Amendment piece of legislation.
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