Tennessee’s top Republican, Governor Bill Lee, recently doubled down on defending anti-civil liberty and anti-gun laws in a recent Second Amendment lawsuit.
On February 16, 2023, Gun Owners of America, Inc., and Gun Owners Foundation along with three private individuals filed suit against the state naming Governor Lee and Jonathan Skrmetti, the state’s Attorney General in a complaint known as Hughes et al. v. Tennessee.
The lawsuit challenged Tennessee’s “parks statute” and Tennessee’s state-wide “gun free zone statute” (Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1307 & § 39-17-1311) which are unconstitutional under the Tennessee Constitution. (The lawsuit is based on similar lawsuits that have been filed in other state and federal courts following the Bruen decision, like this one in New Jersey.)
The Tennessee “parks” statute makes it a crime to carry any firearm in a public recreational area (including public parks, public greenways, campgrounds, etc.) unless that citizen has an enhanced handgun permit, which acts only as an affirmative defense.
The even more interesting law is the archaic “gun free zone statute” (which dates back to 1880), making it a criminal offense for anyone to carry any firearm anywhere in the state with the “intent to go armed”, INCLUDING an individual’s own home or while on their own property.
Related: Tennessee Fails to Honor the 2nd Amendment
For years, the Tennessee Firearms Association, the state’s only no compromise firearms advocacy group, has lobbied to try to overturn this ridiculous law, with little success. Today, Tennessee is generally considered a ‘gun-friendly’ state and even has a form of permitless carry. However, this holdover relic of a law makes it easy for any progressive prosecutor to abuse when it comes to using firearms in self-defense.
In October 2024, GOA and GOF filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the Court to rule that the challenged state statutes are unconstitutional.
In this case’s latest court filing, just a few days ago, Governor Lee and Attorney General Skrmetti filed a response and cross-motion for summary judgment arguing that the challenged statutes ARE constitutional. Many native Tennesseans who hold dear their Second Amendment rights likely don’t realize that their Republican governor is upholding a blatantly anti-Second Amendment position in court.
Despite the straightforward text of the Second Amendment, the filing from the state begins with statements asserting the limitation of individual rights:
“[T]he right [to carry firearms] secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.” United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680, 690 (2024). So too, the twin right in Tennessee’s Constitution is not unlimited.
The State adds:
The challenged statutes have numerous constitutional applications. For example, the Going Armed statute can be constitutionally applied to restrict the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons, the carrying of firearms by convicted felons, the carrying of firearms in sensitive places, and the carrying of firearms offensively to threaten others. And the Guns in Parks statute can be constitutionally applied in sensitive places—like public parks, polling locations, and playgrounds—as well as to non-permit holders. Those constitutional applications doom Plaintiffs’ facial challenge.
The ridiculous defense ignores that there are already laws on the books addressing many of the aforementioned crimes. It is inherently the state’s position to KEEP the overarching law making the carrying of firearms illegal, and to offer only limited positive defenses for citizens.
“TFA is monitoring the case and is addressing the positions that have been incredulously argued by Governor Lee and Attorney General Skrmetti with state legislators and demanding that these Tennessee Legislature take immediate action to repeal the challenged statutes in order to remove the statutory infringements that violate the Second Amendment,” said the TFA Board in an email statement to News2A.
(Before becoming attorney general, Skrmetti served as chief counsel to Governor Lee and as chief deputy attorney general to his predecessor Attorney General Herbert Slatery. Skrmetti worked as a prosecutor under the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and previously at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office.)
We will continue to cover this case.
