PA Bill Number: SB99
Title: In county boards of elections, further providing for expenses of county boards and of primaries and elections to be paid by county, expenses of ...
Description: In county boards of elections, further providing for expenses of county boards and of primaries and elections to be paid by county, expenses of ... ...
Last Action: Re-referred to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 8, 2024
Your papers please! :: 05/30/2015
In Tennessee, one must have "papers" in order to carry a defensive firearm legally. The defensive firearm, an arm as defined by the Supreme Court, is protected by the Second Amendment, except where it isn't. Are you aware that reporters do not have to get a state business license to do their job? No, because the First Amendment, has that pesky little phrase, "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom . . . of the press".
Likewise, the Second Amendment has it's own ". . . shall not be infringed."
Some say that permitless carry, also known as Constitutional Carry is OK, but training should be required in order to carry a handgun. There is simply no practical way to require documented training without government involvement. Government involvement means government record keeping. That is what we have now. The passing of permitless carry does not give anyone license to be stupid.
Are Tennesseans are more reckless than folks from the current Constitutional Carry states, Vermont, Wyoming, Arizona, Kansas, and Alaska? Permit-less carry in a vehicle is already legal in Tennessee, since July 1, 2014.
Here's our situation. An average Joe can go to his garage and get into his car with his loaded handgun, rifle or shotgun, He can go almost anywhere in the state legally armed. There are some exceptions, such as VA parking lots and TVA properties.
Yet, some little black lady who lives in the high crime housing projects, has no vehicle, and is barely getting by on a low income, who scrapes together the money to buy an inexpensive handgun (dare I say Saturday Night Special) must, according to some logic, hire a taxi to take her to wherever she can get state mandated training and back; take another cab to wherever she needs to get her fingerprints, and finally to the Department of Safety to apply for her permit. For her the Second Amendment is essentially denied.
The Tennessee permitting law descends directly from Slave Codes, which stated, "A slave may not carry, with intent to go armed, a knife, club or gun, without first getting a permission slip from his master."
So the status quo in Tennessee is this. The permitting law requires those of us who can afford it to get our permission slip from our Master, the State. For those who can't afford it,
RIGHT DENIED!
Felons, meanwhile, just ignore the law.
It is time for Constitutional Carry to pass in Tennessee. No papers should be needed.
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