Despite significant pushback from Memphis law enforcement and other agencies across Tennessee, permitless carry, or Constitutional carry, was signed into state law Thursday. This means if you have no existing convictions that would bar you from owning a gun, and you are 21 or older, you will be able to carry a firearm openly or concealed — no training or permit required. 

Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law Thursday and thanked Tennessee lawmakers and the National Rifle Association for helping him get the task done. Eighteen other states, including Mississippi and Arizona, have enacted permitless carry.

The law goes into effect on July 1. It does not apply to long guns. In addition to removing misdemeanor charges once associated with carrying a gun without a permit, the new law also introduces harsher sentencing measures for some gun crimes. 

A theft of a firearm that would have been a misdemeanor charge is now a felony, those convicted of firearm theft will serve six months in prison at a minimum, up from the current 30-day sentence. The law also bars felons convicted of possessing a firearm from early release.

Since Lee first publicly floated permitless carry, heads of law enforcement in Memphis and Shelby County have stated their opposition, some did so repeatedly. 

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After Lee signed the bill Thursday afternoon, Shelby County’s top prosecutor, Amy Weirich, who had criticized the state’s permitless carry intentions in the past, said she hoped gun owners would still choose to receive safety training.

“Despite this bill, those individuals who are prohibited from carrying still are prohibited from carrying. Despite this bill, I would hope responsible citizens still would learn to properly handle and store a gun before leaving home with it and endangering innocent people,” Weirich said. 

Weirich, was among the first to publicly push back against permitless carry since 2020, pointing to the passage of a 2013 law that allowed gun owners to leave their firearms in their vehicles as a major driver of gun crime in Shelby County. 

Permitless carry, she said, would only increase the steady parade of gun charges her office is tasked with prosecuting. 

“It makes no sense,” Weirich said in 2020. “Is it really asking too much for someone to get a permit to carry a deadly weapon on our streets? First it was guns in cars. Now it is guns in hands.”

Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings was out of the office Thursday when Lee signed the bill and could not comment, but has spoken out against permitless carry on several occasions.

“I predict that if this is passed, you will see an increase in gun violence across the state,” Rallings said in February 2020, before the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic helped catalyze a record-shattering rash of homicides for the year — 332 total, out of more than 1,200 shootings and more than 100 homicides higher than the previous record of 228 in 2016.

Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said the current permit system, among other features, educates gun owners about the correct and law-abiding instances in Tennessee where the use of a firearm is acceptable. He expressed concern about the consequences of striking the minimum education requirements for carrying a firearm.

“The Tennessee Sheriff’s Association and Sheriff Bonner do not support the current plan as proposed for permitless carry and believe there are not enough precautions in the proposed law,” Bonner said. “As we know, there is a requirement to obtain a license to drive an automobile, which ensures your ability to safely operate the vehicle and the testing of your knowledge about traffic laws.  There should be similar, common-sense requirements before citizens can start carrying firearms in public.”

Both Bonner and Rallings have said the Memphis area is already besieged by a higher level of gun violence that can be directly linked to the passage of the 2013 law that allowed gun owners to leave their firearms in vehicles. And both are worried that this is one more law that will endanger not only residents, but law enforcement officers.

 “Since the TN law was changed to allow law-abiding citizens to have firearms in their vehicles for personal protection, too many citizens have left unsecured firearms in their vehicles, which were then stolen and could become a possible danger to others in the hands of criminals,” Bonner said.

The 2013 law was heavily supported by Republican lawmakers in the state and touted as pro-2nd amendment. But since the law’s passage, the number of firearms stolen out of vehicles increased from 358 in 2013 to more than 1,200 in 2017.

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

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