Handgun bills advance in Tennessee legislature
By Richard Locker (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
NASHVILLE -- A House subcommittee approved bills Wednesday allowing people with gun-carry permits to take firearms into state parks and places serving alcohol.
It also approved a bill making permit records confidential and criminalizing "unauthorized" publication of information from them, including identifying whether people involved in gun crimes are licensed to carry.
The action came on the same day Memphis police charged Martino Johnson with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Terrell Beasley after a minor traffic accident Monday.
If the bill were already law, media outlets could be fined $2,500 for reporting that Johnson -- plus another man charged with murder earlier this month after an argument over parking at a Cordova shopping center -- were gun-carry permit holders at the times of the shootings.
The Criminal Practice and Procedures Subcommittee is the first standing committee to start moving dozens of bills loosening restrictions on where guns can be carried and blocking public access to the state-issued licenses.
The bills' next stop: the House Judiciary Committee, probably next week.
The subcommittee delayed for a week a bill opening all city- and county-owned parks and ball fields to guns.
Guns are currently banned from state and local parks. Jim Fyke, state commissioner of environment and conservation, and the parks director for Goodlettsville, told lawmakers he opposes guns in parks because of the potential danger to patrons.
House Speaker Kent Williams said guns in parks, especially local parks, is a concern: "I've attended lots of sports events in parks over the years with my four boys. I've seen parents fighting parents, parents fighting coaches, coaches fighting coaches, coaches fighting umpires. I think a gun would only escalate the problem."
Rep. Janice Sontany, D-Nashville, offered an amendment to remove local parks from the bill.
"I don't think there's any place for a gun in a park," Sontany said. "We have many many children in parks. Emotions can get high. My neighbor is an umpire and he says he can't believe how parents act in front of their children."
John Harris of the Tennessee Firearms Association did not testify but told reporters later that permit holders should have the same right to carry in parks as anywhere else.
The guns in restaurants bill, sponsored by Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, allows carry-permit holders to take guns into places serving alcohol until 11 p.m. and if they are not drinking.
Dan Haskell of the Tennessee Hospitality Association told the committee that restaurants oppose the bill.
Tennessee has licensed 220,000 people to carry guns, 33,000 in Shelby County.
Sontany and Rep. Karen Camper, D-Memphis, cast the only votes against the bill on the six-member subcommittee, which also approved a bill repealing a requirement that gun dealers take a thumbprint of buyers.
There was little discussion about the bill closing permit records and criminalizing their publication.
Frank Gibson of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government said the penalty is unconstitutional and would stop reporting about problems in the permit program.
"If you ask a police officer if the man who shot somebody at the restaurant last night had a permit, the officer and the Department of Safety wouldn't be allowed to say. And the press could be investigated and fined if it found out and printed it," he said.
