The Tennessee Legislature is rushing at an unusual pace to conclude
its work for 2025. Reports indicate that this has nothing to do with
the successful management of the “People’s Business.” Rather, it
appears several Tennessee legislators may be under subpoena to testify
in the criminal trial against their formed leader Glen Casada
which is expected to go to trial after mid-April. Whether it is a
coincidence or not, many bills, not just Second Amendment bills, are
being rushed and either given inadequate opportunity for public
consideration or moved entirely to 2026.
The TFA’s Bill Status Report indicates that 42 of the 73 bills that
TFA is tracking have had activity just this week. Of that number, 22
bills appear to have either failed this week, were taken “off notice”
(likely killing them for 2025) or deferred for consideration until 2026.
While some of those were bad bills that needed to be stopped, some
were good Second Amendment bills that Republican leadership, the
Governor, the Department of Safety, TBI and/or the Tennessee Sheriffs
Association wanted to stop. (See, for example: SB441/HB478 regarding
posted properties; SB474/HB387 regarding health care inquiries about
firearms ownership; SB819/HB554 Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act; and
SB914/HB883 judicial review of handgun permit revocations).
The TFA’s Calendar report for the week of April 7 lists a bills that
need attention (see below). Unfortunately, the report also makes clear
that the primary bills to repeal the existing infringements on the
Second Amendment in Tennessee have already been derailed by GOP
Legislative leaders. Indeed, some might wonder if the truly necessary
Second Amendment bills are being killed by GOP legislative leaders
because they do not support the Second Amendment or are they killing
them because they know TFA supports legislation that repeals laws that
violate the Second Amendment?
Bills to Support:
HB1189 (Grills) / SB1227 (Lowe) – this bill would
convert Tennessee’s handgun permit to a firearm permit. At present,
Tennessee is 1 of 7 states that completely ban the capacity to carry a
loaded longarm (with or without a permit). Most states, including every
state that touches Tennessee allows that and with over 80% of the
nation allowing it, there is no evidence that this creates a problem
anywhere. Further, as some legislative supporters have tried to explain
to the Governor’s minions from the Department of Safety, “is there
really a difference in allowing someone to carry an AR15 pistol, which
is allowed, and an AR15 carbine?”
HB856 (Capley)/SB1407 (Hensley) – this would allow
Tennessean’s to property the real property and personal property from
looters, rioters, thieves, burglars and trespassers. Current Tennessee
law makes it a crime, for example, to even “brandish” a weapon to
protect real or personal property.
HB873 (Fritts) /SB1360 (Hensley) – technical improvements to the existing Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
HJR53 (Reedy) – this is a proposed constitutional
amendment that passed the Senate in 2024 but that was killed by
Republican House leaders. It has been refiled in 2025. It is written
to bring the Tennessee’s constitutional provision into compliance with
the 2nd Amendment’s “shall not be infringed” mandate.
Bills to Oppose (see calendar for descriptions)
HB468 (Reeves)/ SB163 (Hensley)
HB947 (Brooks)/SB1191 (Akbari)
HB625 (Hardaway)/SB662 (Akbari)
HB1314 (Lamberth)/SB1296 (Johnson)
SB1075 (Johnson) / HB1093 (Sexton)
SB1244 (Massey) / HB1210 (Keisling)
SB1176 (Akbari) / HB1231 (Miller)
SB1184 (Akbari) / HB948 (Brooks)
SB1350 (Akbari) / HB1390 (Pearson)
SB34 (Campbell) / HB599 (Freeman)
SB 642 (Campbell / HB596 (Freeman)
SB43 (Lamar) / HB814 (Miller)
SB957 (Lamar) / HB1082 (Camper)
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