Could Tennessee allow guns in public parks? Why gun rights groups are challenging the law
Two gun rights groups are challenging a state law that bans guns in public parks in one of the first test cases in Tennessee under a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that’s upending gun control laws across the country.
Tennessee’s “parks” statute makes it a crime to carry firearms in public parks, playgrounds, civic centers and other public recreational venues but leaves some exemptions for hunting, gun shows, target shooting, military and law enforcement. In another exemption, lawmakers in 2015 passed a bill allowing people with handgun carry permits to carry in guns into parks.
A lawsuit filed in West Tennessee this year by Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation and a trio of Tennessee residents say the law is vague, unconstitutional and leaves people unfairly open to criminal prosecution.
The group is asking a Gibson County Chancery Court judge to sign a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from enforcing the law. A hearing is set for Dec. 19.
In a response in court documents, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the court lacks jurisdiction for such a ruling, but he did not address the suit’s other merits.
The case is one of hundreds of legal challenges to state gun laws nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 “Breun decision,” which overturned a New York law limiting the right to carry guns in public.
Legal experts have said the ruling set a new legal standard for gun laws in which courts wishing to uphold firearm restrictions must now consider whether the law is consistent with the country’s “historical tradition” of gun regulation.
The ruling has sparked confusion in lower courts across the country, with widely different interpretations of how it should be applied.
In Tennessee, the ruling has already impacted the state’s age limit for the open carry law and could now impact other laws.
The state in 2021 became a permitless carry state, allowing for the open and concealed carry of handguns without a permit for anyone 21 and up, along with 18- to 20-year-olds serving in the military.
However, the minimum age was dropped to 18 this year following a federal lawsuit from several younger Tennessee adults and a California gun rights group. The attorney general after the Breun ruling opted not challenge the suit.
A bill to officially lower the age to 18 has not yet advanced in the legislature.
The plaintiffs in the parks statue lawsuit are represented by attorney and Tennessee Firearms Association Executive Director John Harris.
Harris declined comment ahead of the court hearing.
The lawsuit states the Bruen ruling has determined that states now have “extremely narrow latitude to limit the places where firearms may be carried in public,” mentioning possible sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.
“Turning large areas of the State into sensitive places where firearms are prohibited” violates the Tennessee constitution that gives citizens the right to bear arms, the suit says.
Lawmakers have amended the park law in recent years, changing it to prohibit those even with handgun carry permits from having a gun in public recreational areas if the spaces are being used by schools for athletic events and other activities.
The lawsuit says the state law leaves those with and without carry permits open to criminal prosecution and leaves the burden of proof on the resident to show they meet the exemptions.
The suit also challenges the state’s “gun free zone” statute, which widely limits where people can carry firearms with the “intent to go armed.” A different state law gives a wide range of exemptions, but the lawsuit alleges that the burden of proof is on the resident, and that Tennesseans are not protected from being stopped, questioned or arrested by law enforcement.
Reach Kelly Puente at kpuente@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee guns in parks: Why gun rights groups are fighting to carry
