Tennessee law makes in a crime for anyone to carry a firearm “with the intent to go armed.” Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1307(a)(1). The fact is, because of this statute, the Legislature has defined the entire state as a gun free zone, including all personally owned real property. The fact that your home, your farm, your place of business are defined as “gun free zones” – FOR YOU – by the Tennessee Legislature is proven by the fact that state law makes it an affirmative defense, and puts the burden on you, to prove that you on your own property or in your own home at the time that you were carrying a firearm “with the intent to go armed.” See, Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1308.

Tennessee Firearms Association has argued for years that this statutory scheme violates the state and federal constitutions. State law should not make it a crime to exercise a constitutionally protected right, period. State law should not put the risk of arrest and the burden of proving that you fit into some statutory “defense” or “exception” on the individual relative to the exercise of a constitutionally protected right, but it does. The fact that this statutory scheme has persisted since November 2010 when the Republicans took total control of the office of governor and attained a super majority in the Legislature leads to the conclusion that our two Republican governors and the majority of the Republicans in the Legislature think that it is ok to criminalize the exercise of a constitutional right and force the individual to bear the risk and burden of proving that he or she falls within a statutory exception, such as having a permit or being on their own property.

Should this be the law, no!

Let’s compare, however, how the Legislature views your constitutional rights as protected by the 2nd Amendment with an activity that is not an expressly protected right under the constitution – the provision of medical services.

WKRN (Channel 2) in Nashville recently interviewed Speaker Cameron Sexton about Tennessee’s abortion laws and its “trigger bill”. This is a portion of the discussion in that news report:

Note that the abortion trigger law, which was passed under a Republican control in 2019, as well as Tennessee’s gun laws (TCA Sec. § 39-17-1307), make it a crime to engage in the defined activities. Note that the abortion trigger law and Tennessee’s gun laws (TCA Sec. § 39-17-1307 and § 39-17-1308) place the risk, burden and expense on the individual to prove at trial that the individuals falls within one of the defenses or exceptions contained in Tennessee’s statutes.

It would be a good sign if Speaker Cameron Sexton also felt that it is unreasonable to have gun laws in Tennessee which criminalize the exercise of a right that is protected from “infringement” by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

It would be a good sign if Speaker Cameron Sexton felt it was unreasonable to make a gun owner, particularly one who is carrying for self-defense, “to … prove their innocence” and to see statements from him that he wanted to “go back to the normal way the judicial system is that you have to prove they are guilty…” of actually committing a crime as opposed to exercising a constitutionally protected right. Now, to be fair, Speaker Sexton may have already made such public declarations but so far TFA has been unable to find them.

Another thing that would be a good sign is if other Legislators and our governor felt the same way or stronger about Tennesseans exercising the rights protected by the Second Amendment as Speaker Sexton indicated he feels about doctors engaged in an activity that is not expressly referenced in the constitution at all.