Hamblen County considers "opt-out"?

[Tim Nunan]

We've heard that Morristown city council and Hamblen county commission are considering opting out for local parks.
More details in the Morristown forum.

[meadsteve]

Highly recommend using these points to defeat resolutions to post in county parks. Cut and paste to enter permit data for your city or county (available from the Commercial Appeal website) and rewrite as you please. This is talking points. It seems to have worked here in Anderson County - not sure about City governments for sure. Remember if a park is 100% owned and operated by the city only the city council has to vote to post the park.

Posting County Parks against Permit Holders

1. The common goal of everyone here is to ensure our parks are a safe as possible.

2. I shall assume that in this endeavor the path chosen must be consistent with the law and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. Do we agree?

3. It is also important that we recognize that the resolution being addressed applies only to Handgun Carry Permit holders and to no one else. The laws covering everyone else have not been changed. The law generally prohibiting weapons in the parks, and the penalty for violation remains the same. Laws regarding shooting, displaying, or any unsafe act with any weapon remain the same.

4. For many years state and federal the law prohibited the possession of weapons in all federal, state and local parks in TN , accept for personnel such as the rangers, and police and military personnel in the performance of their official duties.

5. In May this year a federal law referred to as the Coburn Amendment was passed by Congress and signed by the President that will remove that prohibition for state-licensed handgun carry permit holders in all National Parks and Wildlife Refuges – as long as it complies with the laws of the state the park is in. This was to a great extent due to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and published in the Code of Federal Regulations which specifically addressed the impact of permit holders on safety and crime rates in parks, forests, and wildlife areas. After a year of study, and considering and responding to over 125,000 comments from across the nation, it concluded that allowing permit holders to carry concealed handguns reduced crime and improved overall safety. I have several copies of this study with me and it is easily found on-line. Bottom line, the United States government has declared that allowing permit holders to carry their handguns in parks (and similar areas) reduces crime and increases safety for everyone. Studies by universities and other gun-neutral organizations had shown this from the very first days of issuing carry permits.

6. In June this year the TN Legislature passed a law which upon enactment allowed these same permit holders to carry handguns in all state-owned or operated parks, campgrounds, waterways, forests, nature trails and similar areas. It also authorized permit holders to carry in all federal parks, wildlife refuges, and such… as allowed by federal law. In part this was because of a study conducted by the Tennessee Department of Safety that showed that permit holders are extremely safe and law abiding. They point out that during 2008 only 12/10,000th of 1% committed an act requiring their carry permits to be revoked. And only a few of these involved a violent act and fewer involved any weapon. Trust me….. If a TN permit holder committed a crime with a gun it would be in the media for at least a week. Bottom line the Legislature could no longer support that prohibiting these safe and law abiding permit holders from carrying in parks would prevent crime.


7. TN Constitution Art. I, section 26 states: “ That the citizens of this state have the right to keep and bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have the power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.” TN Attorney General Opinion No. 08-19, dated Feb. 08, states: “Under the language of Art.I,” section ”26, the legislature’s authority to regulate the wearing and carrying of arms is limited to measures that are intended to prevent crime.” Bottom line – measure taken by any government body in TN to restrict the wearing or carrying of arms must be intended to prevent crime. Now laws prohibiting the general public, children, felons, persons under indictment for felonies, fugitives from justice, illegal aliens, alcohol and drug abusers, and those adjudicated as mental defectives from carrying guns – are all pretty easy to support their intent to prevent crime. But when the citizens named have been shown consistently over an extended period of time by numerous independent and government studies to prevent crime, there is no way to support that intent.

8. So what is this power to post given you by the State Legislature? First, it is not authority to violate the state constitution. It does not relieve you of the requirement to show your measures restricting the right to wear or carry arms will prevent crime. What this law does give you is the legal responsibility for any actions you take. Courts nation-wide (including the U.S Supreme Court) have ruled that when individuals, corporations, or government entities legally remove a persons’ ability to defend themselves , that that individual , corporation, or government entity becomes legally responsible for the safety of that person and anyone that person could have defended. You can be sued for any damages to the permit holders disarmed by your posting, or anyone they could have defended had they been armed.

It will remain illegal to have weapons in parks (accept for police and military in the performance of their official duties, and the safe and law abiding permit holders we have discussed). The laws about shooting, displaying, or threatening with firearms all stay in place. Just as you have probably not noticed the 3200 state-licensed permit holders living in Anderson County (or the 220,000 in TN) – you are not going to even notice that these folks who have been quietly and safely carrying their handguns in public for years and years. ……….That is unless you vote to ban them from the county parks. In that case a guaranty that you will notice them actively supporting your opponent during your next election.



Prepared by:

Steve Mead
Oak Ridge , TN

[johnharris]

Steve, that is an excellent post. I would consider an extension of one argument because we will be returning to the legislature.

The Tennessee Constitution expressly limits the authority to restrict to "the Legislature." I would take the position that this authority is express and limited and cannot be delegated to administrators or even local governments.

[Tim Nunan]

[johnharris]