No, Tennessee is not a constitutional carry state…yet

At Tennessee-Carry, we get a lot of comments from folks who think that Tennessee has gone to permitless carry. To be clear, we have not. You must have a permit to legally carry a firearm in public. Otherwise, the penalties can be severe.

Ever since Governor Lee announced that he was introducing a permitless carry bill, gun owners in the state of Tennessee have been abuzz about it. In February of 2020, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced his support for legislation to allow residents to carry guns without a permit. In March and May, the bill advanced through some house committees with some strange language that doesn’t make much sense. House Bill 2661, sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, would allow a person to carry a handgun without a permit as long as he or she otherwise would have qualified for one. A person who does not meet the state’s list of qualifications to carry or a person who did something that would have a permit revoked would not be allowed to carry a firearm under this bill. Current language in the bill does not allow nonresidents to carry without a permit, and it does not allow residents to carry inside a state park without a permit that lets them. Then in June, the finance sub-committee added some horrible amendments to exclude the 4 largest counties in Tennessee from the bill. These amendments would keep half the Tennessee population from being able to carry without a permit, essentially making this Bill null and void.  

Currently, that’s where the bill is at, stuck in a finance sub-committee with no news on when it will move out. With the state facing massive budget cuts and shortfalls, the odds that legislators will pass a bill that takes money from the state very slim at this time. So for now, you still need some sort of permit to carry a firearm in public.