On January 23, 2023, an agreed order was filed in the federal case styled Beeler v. Long, U.S. District E.D. TN 3:21-cv152 (opinion included below) in which the Tennessee Attorney General agreed with the Plaintiffs that Tennessee’s ban on 18-20 year olds to get handgun permits was unconstitutional.
In 2021, Governor Bill Lee pushed an “administration bill” through the Tennessee Legislature in which an affirmative defense to carrying without a handgun permit was established pursuant to which most 18-20 year olds were ineligible to carry a handgun without a permit even though they can legally own and purchased (casual sales only) handguns under state and federal law. The legislation was sponsored by Senator Jack Johnson in the Senate and by Representative William Lamberth in the House.
Prior to its passage, Tennessee Firearms Association and its members were demanding that the 2021 law cover anyone who could legally possess a handgun not just those 21 and up. Of course, Republican legislators disregarding the position of TFA concerning the age issue problems in the legislation as well as other concerns and passed the law with the unconstitutional provisions just as the Governor and bill sponsors wanted. Within a few weeks of that law being passed by the Republican super majority, this federal civil rights lawsuit was filed in East Tennessee.
In the federal civil rights case, the Plaintiffs asked the federal court “to declare unconstitutional and enjoin enforcement of Tenn. Code Ann §§ 39-17-1307(a)(1), (a)(2), (g)(1), 39-17-1351(b)-(c), and 1366(b)(3), and any related regulations, policies, procedures, practices, and customs that Defendant administers, implements, and/or enforces pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann §§ 39-17-1307(a)(1), (a)(2), (g)(1), 39-17-1351(b)-(c), and 1366(b)(3) in order to restrict individuals aged 18 years old to 20 years old from carrying handguns or obtaining permits to carry handguns on the basis of age alone….” Tennessee’s prior attorney general had vigorously opposed the lawsuit.
In the fall of 2022, Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee’s new Attorney General, took several actions which signaled perhaps a change of opinion regarding whether Governor Lee’s hallmark legislation and the positions taken by the House and Senate sponsors were constitutional. In the Agreed Order, the parties agreed that “[t]he Challenged Scheme regulating the possession and carrying of handguns that restricts individuals aged 18 years old to 20 years old from carrying handguns or obtaining permits to carry handguns on the basis of age alone violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” A determination which the legislators had been advised years ago was the proper constitutional conclusion and which the prior Attorney General had refused to acknowledge.
The order permanently enjoins the state of Tennessee from discriminating against 18-20 year olds relative to handgun permits or “permitless carry” on the basis of age along.
While a major victory, there is much to be done. Tennessee still does not have REAL constitutional carry. Tennessee still has unconstitutional statutes, rules and regulations on things like “gun free zones”, prohibitions on carrying longarms, etc. To help you demand that your rights be honored, Tennessee Firearms Association has invested in an advocacy tool that helps you to stay in contact with your legislators. Get started now by going to the Call to Action page on the TFA’s website.
Finally, TFA acknowledges Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and his team for recognizing the constitutional failures of Tennessee’s gun laws in this regard and the amicable resolution of this matter. Perhaps, we can as Tennesseans look forward at least to an Attorney General that honors and protects our rights, as protected by the 2nd and 14th Amendments like our Governors and Legislators should have been doing.
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