Tuesday, April 18, 2017

TN: Bill would reduce Penalty of Carrying Handguns



Tennessee, as part of reconstruction after the Civil War, banned the open or concealed carry of handguns.  The state constitution was changed to allow this infringement of the right to bear arms in 1870.  From the 1870 Tennessee Constitution:
That the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime. Art. I, § 26 (enacted 1870).
Some Tennessee legislators are attempting to minimize the infringement by reducing the penalty for bearing handguns from a misdemeanor to a civil offense. The penalty would be a fine of $25 for the first offense, and $50 for the second offense.

Tennessee has a shall issue permit law. The law partially restores the right to carry handguns, openly or concealed, but requires a state issued permit to exercise that right.

In order to move toward Constitutional Carry, the intermediate step of reducing the penalty for carrying without a permit would be enacted with HB 1176:
As introduced, reduces the penalty for the offense of carrying a handgun without a permit and with the intent to go armed to a Class C misdemeanor with a $25 fine for a first offense or $50 for a second or subsequent offense and requires a citation to be issued in lieu of arrest. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 and Title 40.
 The bill has been passed from the Civil Justice Committee to the Finance, Ways & Means Subcommittee.

This late in the year, the chances of passage do not look good.

 ©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That thinking sounds about right for third generation brother sister marriages for those ignorant hillbillies those people think they are making progress as soon as they can get both shoes on and have a sock on each foot. a few more generations and they will not be able to spell shall not infringe.

AngryBiker said...

I'm confused. From the Tennessee Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security; https://www.tn.gov/safety/article/handgunfaqs

Anonymous said...

Ok , confused find the authority for a state to develop a department of home land security. this is playing with words and creating authority that does not exist. this is how we get the estimated 63 million laws, acts and regulations on the books nation wide and over 90% of them are physically unconstitutional by state or federal government over reach with authority they do not have but try to unconstitutionally create. People call me picky but in fact I am a constitutional originalist. we ratified a constitution for a purpose. to many can not comprehend that purpose. the constitution is allowed to be legally changed it was not designed to be manipulated for political purposes. change the constitution legally or shut the hell up.