Park Carry in Tennessee
People say to me Hey, Uncle, I am a law-abiding handgun carry permit holder. Can I carry in a park in the great state of Tennessee? And I say:
That depends.
First, is it a national park? If so, no you cannot. At least now. In February, you will be able to carry in a national park.
Is it a state park? If so, then you can carry your handgun there.
Is it a county/city/other municipality park? Well, then it depends on your location and what day it is. You cannot carry there until September 1. And on September 1, you may or may not be able to carry there depending on if said county/city/other municipality banned the law-abiding carrying of weapons. I’m not sure how you’d know this other than by perusing your local ordinances. Municipalities are supposed to post signs but, frankly, parks tend to have lots of entrances so I’m not sure that you can be certain that the absence of a sign where you happened to enter indicates it’s OK to carry there.
Then the people say to me Man, that’s a lot to keep up with. Sounds like it’s easy to accidentally break the law. I mean, if I’m walking through downtown lawfully carrying and take a step through the World’s Fair Park because it’s quicker, I’m a criminal.
And I say Yup. Local politicos have created a patchwork of inconsistent laws that you can’t possibly keep up with, making it very easy for handgun carry permit holders to break the law unintentionally. So, you should contact your state representative and senators and tell them to start working on the preemption bill.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:12 am
And of course, if you see the mayor or a city councilperson being robbed in a banned park, you should wave and yell, “I’d love to help but I can’t leave my gun unattended here on the sidewalk. I’ll call someone for you”
August 12th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Wrong response, the last sentence should be,”ask for your cell phone back so you can call 911.”