In August 2025, a specially convened Tennessee three-judge trial court unanimously ruled that two of Tennessee’s gun control statutes – Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1307(a) (the “Going Armed Statute”) and Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1311(a) (the “Parks Statute”) – violated the Tennessee Constitution as well as the Second Amendment. Of course, Tennessee Firearms Association supporters have been asserting that conclusion for decades but Tennessee’s Legislature and other government officials have failed to support the repeal of these statutes.
Following that ruling, a couple of bills were filed in January 2026 that had the potential to repeal those two statutes. One of those bills was House Bill 2064 (by Chris Todd) Senate Bill 2467 (by Paul Bailey). Initial assessments were that Todd’s bill had the support of many House Republicans (e.g, Lamberth, McCalmon, Howell, Bulso, Slater, Doggett, Grills, Sherrell, Martin B, Russell, Garrett, Sparks, Boyd, Haston, Reneau, Moon, Cepicky, Fritts, Barrett, Capley, Hill, Atchley, Bricken, Reeves, Hurt, and Powers). That demonstration of support suggested to those who may not be experienced that the bill would likely make it to the House floor and pass this year.
But, Tennessee Firearms Association’s assessment of the bill suggested that while some provisions of the bill were desirable – such as the sections repealing the two statutes that the three-judge panel had declared unconstitutional – other provisions suggested that the legislation contained provisions that, while perhaps desirable, should have never been included in a bill that should have merely repealed the two unconstitutional provisions and done some cleanup work necessitated by the repeal of those provisions.
The bill’s recent history, despite the technical appearance of many leadership level co-sponsors, suggests that this bill may never make it out of subcommittee. It was filed on January 23, 2026. It was assigned for the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee which is chaired by Clay Doggett who is a co-sponsor on the bill and who has a very strong reputation for actually supporting Second Amendment legislation. Further, this subcommittee is comprised of 7 Republicans and two Democrats (all appointed by Speaker Sexton). Indeed, four of the nine committee members are co-sponsors on the bill.
The bill has been scheduled for hearing in that subcommittee for February 18, March 4, March 11 and now potentially March 18. That continuous delay of the bill suggests that either Rep. Todd does not have the votes from his fellow Republicans to get the bill out of the committee (which would only require 5 affirmative votes – 4 of whom are co-sponsors) or perhaps that Rep. Todd is “controlling the hockey puck.”
What is “controlling the hockey puck”? Decades ago, TFA was told by a Democrat House Committee chair, who was supportive of 2nd Amendment legislation, to be wary of drawing the conclusion that the sponsorship or co-sponsorship of legislation was the same as supporting the legislation. That Democrat committee chair explained that it was a common strategy and practice in the Legislature that if you wanted to make sure certain issues were not enacted that you would file the legislation yourself and then simply not move it forward – this “controlling the hockey puck.” That way you could claim (perhaps in a re-election bid) to be a sponsor or supporter of certain issues but that the legislation simply did not have the votes to pass. Thus, sometimes sponsorship is for propaganda purposes and not an indication of zealous constitutional support.
Now, at this point, it is hard to say if the hockey puck strategy is being implemented to kill this legislation or if it is yet another example of a recurring problem (setting aside the portions of the bill that even TFA does not support) that a sufficient number of House Republicans have perhaps told the sponsor that they will not support the legislation as it is.
This bill needs to be amended. It needs to be laser focused on two issues: repealing “intent to go armed” entirely and repealing the “parks” statute entirely. Any of the other issues, whether good ideas or not, should be handled in other legislation. What Tennessee needs now is simply legislation that does nothing more than repeals two unconstitutional statutes that Bill Lee and Jonathan Skrmetti are trying to preserve.
What about the Senate version? The Senate version has been assigned to Senate Judiciary committee which although having a 7-2 Republican control has recently demonstrated that at least 4 of those Republicans do not always support the constitution. Senate Judiciary has not scheduled Senator Bailey’s companion bill for a hearing – perhaps because they know that its dead in the House for one reason or another.
What would an amendment look like?
This is likely all that it would take:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 39-17-1307 is amended by deleting
subsection (a).
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 39-17-1311 is deleted.
While some other parts of the bill propose other valid and relevant changes, they are not necessary or urgent. Further, by amending the bill to these two sections the votes will tell us which legislators truly will honor their campaign promises and oath.
What can you do?
- Read the unanimous trial court opinion to understand the issues.
- Contact your legislators to demand that they ensure that these two statutes are repealed before they adjourn this year.
- Insist that your legislators demand the amendment of HB2064 and SB2467 to clean it up to only address the unconstitutional statutes.
- Share this information with family, friends and other Second Amendment supporters to encourage them to contact their legislators.
If you appreciate the work of the Tennessee Firearms Association on issues such as this, please consider joining. You can also made charitable donations to the Tennessee Firearms Foundation to help fund this and other public interest litigation that focuses on restoring fully the rights protected from government infringement by the Constitutions.
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