300winmag

While we can't seem to make much headway with our legislature for people with permits, it looks like the Georgia legislature passed college campus carry.  This will especially help students who attend college at night in urban areas.     http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/georgia-passes-campus-carry-bill-legalizing-guns-a/nqjH4/   Of the states surrounding TN where you can carry legally at a college campus with a license, this will add Georgia to Mississippi (enhanced permit), Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.

It seems to be more of a political bill than a practical bill that actually helps people with permits.

This super majority Republican legislature has done nothing but thrown a few crumbs our way as far as gun rights this past few years.  Those few crumbs were better than nothing because it honestly was very difficult to carry legally here up until 5-6 years ago when the restaurant bill and recently the park bill became law.

This bill has made it past the Senate Committee.  The bill seems to have good intentions as far as trying to add civil liability protections to businesses that do not put up no gun signs.  The fact is, we just need a simple bill to remove the criminal penalty.  If any of you are represented by or know the sponsors of this bill, you might want to see if they will just remove the no gun sign criminal penalty as a part of the bill.

You can bet that if constitutional carry passes, you'll see more places stick no guns signs up.  People can say "Oh just don't do business there".  That's easy to say if you carry your gun to Wal Mart on the weekend, but when you carry daily and go to both private businesses and local government offices in downtown Memphis or Nashville, it will be a big pain.   It's unfortunate that the whole no gun sign law will not be fixed this session, even after changing the sign rules.  You would have thought that if the bill sponsors were going to change the sign rules that they could have gone ahead and canned the criminal penalty while they were at it but I guess that is too much trouble to add/subtract a few words from a piece of paper.

Unfortunately the no carry signs do have force of law.  This is something that badly needs to change here.

Hopefully enough folks on the committees will vote for the bill.  It seems like the House committee was where this bill stopped last year.  Maybe with it being an election year, more will vote for it.

The bill passed pretty much unanimously in the house last year and passed unanimously in the Senate yesterday.  That bill could have been changed enough to truly benefit us and you would have probably still had it pass both house and senate.

It's good the guy was able to make it to the hospital.

Eliminating the criminal penalty for the no gun signs does not mean that private property owners will not be able to ask people to leave.  Most states do not have this sort of law and business owners still can ask people to leave their property.  A business owner in Tennessee can ask you to leave right now without any sort of no gun sign because again that is a trespass issue.   The weapons charge that is a Class B Misdemeanor is worse than the Class C Misdemeanor trespass charge.  A weapons conviction can cause you to have your permit suspended and your firearm confiscated.  Since trespass is not a weapons issue, the problem probably would not affect your permit or involve your gun being confiscated if you were asked to leave and you did not leave.     Sometimes I wonder why pro gun people would not want restrictions reduced on their ability to carry legally.  Isn't the whole point of paying for the permit so that you do not have to worry about a weapons charge and dealing with your gun being taken?   If you go to downtown Memphis or Nashville, you will see what a pain it is to legally carry both in the local government owned buildings and private property due to these no gun signs.

From what I'm reading, criminal trespass is a Class C Misdemeanor.  It is not a weapons charge.   The sign violation is a weapons charge and a Class B Misdemeanor.  Since it is a weapons charge, you could have issues with your handgun carry permit.

If we want to get the criminal penalty removed and be able to carry legally in a lot more places, folks that live where the bill sponsors represent need to contact them.  We also need to get the NRA and TFA to encourage the bill sponsors to amend the bill to remove the criminal penalty.   My view is, if this bill has already made it through the House and now working through the Senate to a floor vote, we have a great opportunity to use this bill to our advantage.  The bill made it through the Senate committee with a 9-0 vote, so it does not have a lot of bad media baggage attached to it.  If we are only get one or two decent 2nd amendment bills past this legislative session, let's get this taken care of.     The House sponsor for HB0682 is VanHuss The Senate sponsor for SB0774 is Beavers

This bill was heard yesterday in the Senate Judiciary committee and made it past committee.  Is there any interest in having this bill amended to remove the criminal penalty for the signs?  It looks like we have the opportunity right now to have the bill amended but that opportunity is not being used by the NRA and other gun groups.

This is a democrat sponsored anti gun bill that is endorsed by the Brady folks.  The bill shouldn't make it past committee vote in a super majority Republican legislature that is supposedly pro gun.  I'm surprised it is even being heard in the committee.      There is really only one decent pro gun bill out there that actually helps a lot of people and that is the constitutional carry bill that has quite a few co sponsors.  There is nothing else of substance out there that helps most people with handgun carry permits, such as cutting restrictions on permits.   If this democrat sponsored bill makes it through committee, then that same committee needs to get behind the constitutional carry bill and/or amend some current bills to cut restrictions on permits. 

I thought that the issue Tennessee had was that yearly background checks are not required on the handgun carry permits.  The background checks were only done at the time of a new permit and renewals.   Still, it is funny that people in a state where you basically buy a pistol license at the sheriff's department can bypass NICS, but our permit is somewhat expensive to get and it doesn't give us near the benefits. 

It looks like a bill that passed the House last year could be making movement in the state senate this year.  Is there any chance this bill can be amended to remove the no gun sign criminal penalty?

If people can night hunt wild hogs, I don't see the problem with night hunting coyotes on private property.  People can also night hunt coons and possums.  I haven't seen quail in a long time and I often wonder if coyotes are part of the problem.  I can understand not wanting people to night hunt on public land.

Yeah mostly political noise so the politicians get their NRA A rating and get elected again.

If the 'no guns' sign criminal charges do not apply to off duty police and off duty prison guards (only can be asked to leave), why should it apply to people with permits?  We're all good guys and have paid for our privilege in this state to carry.  It's just an unnecessary law that applies not just to private property but also to public property.  If you live in a small town, you may be able to carry just about anywhere but a school because those signs are not put up by your local government and business owners.  If you go to downtown Memphis or Nashville, good luck legally carrying when you go to all the city owned buildings and other places.

If someone has paid the money for a pistol license, then that person should not worry about a weapons charge over a sign.  The sign should be treated no different than a no shirt no shoes no service sign.  Our state unfortunately has created several areas where people with licenses can have problems.  Laws should focus on criminals with weapons, not the honest people paying for a license.  I'm all for off duty LEO's being able to carry legally anywhere and people with permits legally carrying anywhere also.  I also think that if there are a few locations like jails where off duty police cannot carry, then the same secure storage provided to them should be provided to people with permits.  The secure storage is already there for police, why not hold weapons for people with permits?  This would be handy for people who do business at jails, prisons, etc.  At most, a public or private property owner should be able to tell someone with a permit to leave just like what is presently done with off duty police.  It works in other states, why not here?

That is great that there is talk in the legislature about fixing 39-17-1359 to actually remove the criminal offense.  The NRA really needs to get behind that because it would legalize a lot of places to carry in but at the same time property owners would still be able to ask people to leave.

These politicians are just coming up with excuses because it all goes back to that they do not trust people with handgun carry permits.  If they did, then people with permits would be able to carry in the Legislative Plaza and the statehouse.  They want you to buy their permit, but they don't want you to use the permit to carry your handgun.  Instead, they would rather you just leave your gun in your vehicle where it can be stolen.

I think these politicians would come up with another excuse. 

I guess it was too good to be true.  I like how the house speaker is using the 'cost' of removing the signs as a reason not to make a change.  It all goes back to the fact that we need to neuter this no gun sign law.  That way there is not a cost to leaving the signs up and no other excuses.

What's pathetic is the agency that sells the permits is complaining about the folks with permits carrying at the capitol building.  So the highway patrol will gladly take your money for your permit but doesn't want you to use the permit to carry because they don't trust you.   The easy solution to this is just to let people with permits walk around the metal detectors at the capital.  It happens in other states so why wouldn't it work here?