On December 10, 2008, the Tennessee Department of Safety issued a letter to the state’s civilian firearms training schools that it regulates notifying them that it was going to require them to immediately start reporting to the Department “rosters†of all individuals taking handgun training classes. The form for these rosters intentionally included information on the handgun(s) used in the training course, the owner of the handgun and its serial number. This information, once available to the Department, could have been included in a gun owner database (which the state denies was the intent) and could have been available under freedom of information act requests.
On December 17, 2008, when the letters started being received by training schools, TFA sent out an alert to its members and members immediately started contacting the Department and the members’ individual legislators. In less than 12 hours, the Department announced that it was immediately revising its new policy and amending the form to remove the requirement that specific weapon information be reported to the state.
On December 18, 2008, the Department contacted TFA leadership and advised that a had been issued.
Quick action by TFA members across the state shows the power of grassroots activity!