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TN Attorney General says landlords can ban tenants' guns

Posted on 10/28/2009 2:08:12 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour

Copy and paste this link, its from the Tennessean they are too ashamed of their stuff to have it posted here...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091028/NEWS02/91028067/TN+Attorney+General+says+landlords+can+ban+tenants++guns+


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; propertyrights; shallnotbeinfringed
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1 posted on 10/28/2009 2:08:12 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Then it’s not really your home.


2 posted on 10/28/2009 2:09:57 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all the while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: a fool in paradise

Does the Laird get first dibs on the new wife as well?


3 posted on 10/28/2009 2:11:07 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
Can they ban books, too? What about items of worship?

What is this guy? A Nazi?

4 posted on 10/28/2009 2:11:21 PM PDT by OldDeckHand (Obamacare - So bad, even Joe Lieberman isn't going to vote for it.)
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More wonderful news from what everyone who lives here calls a gun friendly state...


5 posted on 10/28/2009 2:12:39 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Blue counties forcing their will upon a primarily red state.


6 posted on 10/28/2009 2:18:18 PM PDT by vetvetdoug (FUBO, a fashion statement for conservatives.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

TN Attorney General says landlords can ban tenants’ guns

______________________________________________

Can lanlords also ban tenants on welfare? Ban crackheads and meth abusers?

Can landlords ban illegals? How about Adam and Steve?

No????

This just blows.


7 posted on 10/28/2009 2:18:46 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (I am Legend)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

If landlords can ban smoking, why not guns, even if you aren’t firing them inside the house.

Not really a question anymore - the overarching principles and precedents have been set.

Froggie sez water nice and warm.


8 posted on 10/28/2009 2:19:51 PM PDT by swarthyguy (MEAT, the new tobacco. Your right to eat meat ends where my planetary ecosystem begins.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

The part of the opinion says that landlords could put language in the lease banning guns is debatable. It is the landlord’s property, and generally speaking parties should be free to negotiate the terms of contracts. Landlords can ban all sorts of things in leases, and the would be tenant is free to find somewhere to live, if he does not like the terms. In this case gun rights clash with private property rights and the right to contract, which creates a dilemma.

The part that says landlords could ban guns, simply by posting signs, even if the lease is silent on guns, is outrageous. If it is not in the lease, there is no question a tenant should be able to keep legal firearms. Could a landlord suddenly and unilaterally, ban pets, washing machines, smoking, etc., if there is nothing in the lease on these subjects?


9 posted on 10/28/2009 2:26:59 PM PDT by Above My Pay Grade
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To: swarthyguy

Smoking ruins the property, it should be banned. its not your house to stink up.


10 posted on 10/28/2009 2:28:04 PM PDT by omega4179
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To: a fool in paradise

If you don’t own it, of course it’s not your home. It belongs to someone else and you’re just using it temporarily.


11 posted on 10/28/2009 2:29:32 PM PDT by Melas
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To: omega4179

Fine, my point exactly.

Landlords ban smoking, pets, etc etc.

The step to guns is a logical extension of the mindset.


12 posted on 10/28/2009 2:29:57 PM PDT by swarthyguy (MEAT, the new tobacco. Your right to eat meat ends where my planetary ecosystem begins.)
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To: omega4179

>>>Smoking ruins the property, it should be banned. its not your house to stink up.<<<

This issue should be worked out, upfront, in the lease. A landlord should not be able to simply ban smoking, pets, guns, etc., in the middle of a lease.


13 posted on 10/28/2009 2:31:05 PM PDT by Above My Pay Grade
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To: Melas

But if you do not have the right to self-defense in your residence, then your other rights also do not hold (including privacy).


14 posted on 10/28/2009 2:31:23 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all the while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Was the sign posted before or after the lease was signed. The article doesn’t say. To me it makes a difference.


15 posted on 10/28/2009 2:32:16 PM PDT by Hiddigeigei (quem deus vult perdere prius dementat)
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To: Above My Pay Grade
You can put up a sign saying that you won't shovel the ice off your sidewalk and by posting the sign claim you are not libel to any damages but it does not mean that it is binding.

Can you require your tenents to surrender their Constitutional rights?

16 posted on 10/28/2009 2:33:14 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all the while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: OldDeckHand

First, you must realize that his opinion holds absolutely no legal weight. I can’t figure this guy out. The other day he said that felons in Tennessee who had had been pardoned or had their convictions expunged could own any type of gun except a handgun.


17 posted on 10/28/2009 2:43:30 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The Second Amendment. Don't MAKE me use it.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Can they ban the right of free speech also? If they ban one Constitutional right then they can ban them all I guess.

What about castle laws? Can a landlord allow police to search a locked apartment on his say-so also with no probably cause? Why not by this idiots thinking.


18 posted on 10/28/2009 2:44:08 PM PDT by Abathar
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To: a fool in paradise
I don't think you got my point. I am 100% against landlords being able to ban things or make unilateral changes to the living arrangements, by posting signs or slipping letters under the tenants' doors.

However, a landlord has much greater leeway in banning things or changes rules when the lease expires. At that point the old agreement that either expressly or implicitly allowed the tenant to smoke, keep pets, or keep guns no longer exists. If the tenant and landlord do not agree on the new terms, either one of them has to give in, or the tenant should find somewhere else to live and the landlord should find a tenant who doesn't object to his rules.

Whether guns can be banned by lease is debatable. One could argue that the tenant's right to keep and bear arms outweighs the landlord's private property rights and both parties right to contract.

Ironically, the one landlord that CLEARLY should not be able to ban guns is the one that universally bans them, the Federal Government. Gun bans in public housing are clearly unconstitutional, IMO.

19 posted on 10/28/2009 2:44:19 PM PDT by Above My Pay Grade
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To: vetvetdoug

Not really, as I have said, this opinion holds no legal weight.


20 posted on 10/28/2009 2:45:03 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The Second Amendment. Don't MAKE me use it.)
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To: Above My Pay Grade

It needs to be prohibited, specifically, in the lease. Leases are binding contracts. The exact language of the entire lease needs to be known, but the lessor cannot just arbitrarily make up “rules” that are not in the lease.


21 posted on 10/28/2009 2:45:25 PM PDT by khnyny (Too much power in too few hands is never a good thing.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

“Can lanlords also ban tenants on welfare?”

Of course.

“Ban crackheads and meth abusers?”

Absolutely

“Can landlords ban illegals? How about Adam and Steve?”

Yes. and Yes.

Any more questions?


22 posted on 10/28/2009 2:46:21 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: Above My Pay Grade
The Constitution doesn't make explicit protections to smoke tobacco (which leave residue) or house animals (which leave residue, make noise, and can attract insects).

If you cannot defend yourself in an apartment or home because the title is not in your name, then it's not your residence and “protections” of speech and privacy likewise are not guaranteed.

23 posted on 10/28/2009 2:47:11 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

People upset by this need to go back and read the constitution. A private property owner may do this. The bill of rights protects us from GOVERNMENT ACTION.

Sheesh. It’s like were at the DU or something.


24 posted on 10/28/2009 2:49:07 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: swarthyguy

Bibles, flags, and guns to not ruin the property, pets and smokes do.


25 posted on 10/28/2009 2:49:39 PM PDT by omega4179
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To: a fool in paradise

Nossir.

The Bill of rights applies to GOVERNMENT ACTION. If you want to carry a gun in an apartment owned by the landlord (ie, not you), don’t rent at that apartment complex.


26 posted on 10/28/2009 2:50:13 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: Tulane

Can your bank make it likewise a condition of your loan?

Can your landlord prohibit exercise of religion in your apartment?


27 posted on 10/28/2009 2:51:55 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: Abathar

“Can they ban the right of free speech also? If they ban one Constitutional right then they can ban them all I guess.”

Yes. An aprtment owner can ban profanity or any other type of speech. IT IS PRIVATE PROPERTY. The constitution protects us from government action. Jeeez, did anyone here take a civics class???!!


28 posted on 10/28/2009 2:52:58 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: a fool in paradise

“Can your landlord prohibit exercise of religion in your apartment?”

No — this would be a violation of the civil rights act, but not the constitution. Gun owners are not a protected class of the civil rights act.


29 posted on 10/28/2009 2:54:33 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: Tulane

Can you FReep in your apartment “freely” since political beliefs are not protected from discrimination?


30 posted on 10/28/2009 2:56:57 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

If the AG says landlords can ban tennants’ firearms, then it stands to reason that they can also allow them. I’m sure there are more than a few who will.


31 posted on 10/28/2009 2:58:19 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.)
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To: Above My Pay Grade

Depends on state law but yes in Ohio you can add to the lease to ban pets especailly if they are problem ones. Since there are laws starting to hold the landlord responsible for tenants behavior it is only fair that they could rule on what tenant does.


32 posted on 10/28/2009 2:58:40 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: a fool in paradise

The Constitution would not prevent your landlord from blocking websites...unless your landlord is a local, state or federal government (ie a Government actor)...though there may be some type of FCC rule or other law that would prevent the private landlord from doing this (i don’t know)...but if the landlord was prevented from doing this, it wouldn’t be by the Constitution....


33 posted on 10/28/2009 2:59:46 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Gunny Bob Lee Swagger called it the patron state of shooting things. The times, they are a changing.


34 posted on 10/28/2009 3:28:49 PM PDT by saganite (What happens to taglines? Is there a termination date?)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
I have a question no one seems to have considered.

How is a landlord going to know if a person has a weapon in his/her apartment/townhouse?

As far as I can tell, it would take a search warrant which would require some sort of probable cause or otherwise be unconstitutional and who would execute it? Some LEA?

Thus unless some incident were to occur whereby tenant had to use his/her weapon, not much chance they would be found out and if push came to shove, better to be safe than sorry and worry about being evicted after the fact but having had the opportunity to defend themselves.

35 posted on 10/28/2009 3:28:52 PM PDT by Conservative Vermont Vet ((One of ONLY 37 Conservatives in the People's Republic of Vermont. Socialists and Progressives All))
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To: Tulane

The way I see it, the right you have as a landlord are simple, you either rent or you don’t rent, you can’t “pick” the race, sex, religion, caliber, class, political affiliation or individual beliefs of your renters.

Gun owners who cannot afford a home, a down payment for a mortgage are being regulated to second class citizens in this opinion, not worthy of all our constitutional rights!?!??!


36 posted on 10/28/2009 3:29:56 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
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To: swarthyguy

Yup and that’s the main reason I was against it when landlords started in on the “ban wagon”. First it was an “easy target” smokers.. now its anything that they don’t like.


37 posted on 10/28/2009 3:34:32 PM PDT by eXe (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: omega4179

It should be the owners right to ban it, not the anti smoking people such as yourself.


38 posted on 10/28/2009 3:38:33 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Waste and fraud are synonymous with gov't spending)
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To: omega4179

No argument there, bub, but one man’s meat......

Some would say that pets lend a piquant atmosphere to an abode.

Some would say the same for flags.

Others remember the aroma of a cigar and brandy around a Winter fire mixing in with scents from the kitchen and dessert trays, dog and kids all shaking around after a minor firecracker is tossed on the fire!

Try stopping the NannyZilla now.


39 posted on 10/28/2009 4:30:30 PM PDT by swarthyguy (MEAT, the new tobacco. Your right to eat meat ends where my planetary ecosystem begins.)
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To: eXe

Well I agree with you .. But I also agree with a Landlords right to demand damages for a new paint job etc. To me that is fair and reasonable for both parties. Most smokers realize it’s residue stains walls, curtains, etc. Some places do this and I can understand why. A gun? I can see no logical reason or right for prohibition period.


40 posted on 10/28/2009 4:34:16 PM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: cva66snipe

Yeah thats just normal.. if someone were to put a hole in the wall.. I would expect a landlord to use a deposit to pay for that as well.. just as smoking stains some stuff.

I have yet to see it stain anything I own or any walls in my house, (and trust me.. I am a clean nut.. I would see it because I clean EVERYTHING lol) so I imagine you have to smoke a whole lot before it becomes an issue, but yes.. if any damage is done... I would expect the tenet to pay for it.


41 posted on 10/28/2009 4:55:58 PM PDT by eXe (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
they are too ashamed of their stuff to have it posted here...

Then why give them the hits? Why not post a synopsis?

42 posted on 10/28/2009 4:58:31 PM PDT by zeugma (Zeugma loves a good W00t Off!)
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To: OldDeckHand

Well, I imagine the landlord could be sued if anyone in the apartment complex was victimized by crime because he refused to permit tenants to defend themselves by denying their second amendment rights.


43 posted on 10/28/2009 5:20:22 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Melas
"If you don’t own it, of course it’s not your home. It belongs to someone else and you’re just using it temporarily."

If the renter is renting the property for the purpose of making it their residence and the landlord agrees to that purpose, then it is in fact the renter's home.

44 posted on 10/28/2009 5:32:52 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: massgopguy

Prima Noctra?


45 posted on 10/28/2009 5:33:47 PM PDT by Rebelbase (This is the time of year when ACORNS fall.)
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To: massgopguy
"Does the Laird get first dibs on the new wife as well?"

Aye, but first the rentor's must be disarmed.

46 posted on 10/28/2009 5:40:30 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: cva66snipe
A gun? I can see no logical reason or right for prohibition period.

There is no logical reason. However, that's not the question. The question is: Does a property owner have the right to contractually bind the renter to conditions even if they aren't logical? Obviously those who lease have fewer rights than those who own, so the question is where do you legally draw the line?

47 posted on 10/28/2009 6:14:45 PM PDT by Melas
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To: SaraJohnson
Well, I imagine the landlord could be sued if anyone in the apartment complex was victimized by crime because he refused to permit tenants to defend themselves by denying their second amendment rights.

No, because the landlord did not compel the victim to disarm himself. The renter willingly signed off on the lease knowing the conditions before hand. If the conditions of the lease were not agreeable, the renter had the option of living elsewhere. There was a similar Texas case involving a store that prohibited weapons years ago. The judge ruled (correctly) that no one was compelled to the enter the store. Those who wished to lawfully carry were free to shop elsewhere at more understanding establishments.

48 posted on 10/28/2009 6:21:29 PM PDT by Melas
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To: Melas

I would just break that agreement. The only way the pimp landlord would know is if I had to pop a cap into a criminal coming into my apartment.


49 posted on 10/28/2009 7:15:09 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

I’m assuming the landlords in favor of this kind of policy would refuse to offer lease agreements to law enforcement personnel. In some cases, it can be handy to have those guys around.


50 posted on 10/28/2009 11:23:14 PM PDT by TNdandelion (While Obama plays with his balls, Afghanistan falls.)
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