Gun permit holders want fewer restrictions

Gun enthusiasts hope to persuade state lawmakers to further relax handgun restrictions during the upcoming legislative session, but will face strong opposition from restaurant owners, educators and organizations seeking tighter gun controls.

Backers of the proposal want the mushrooming number of Tennesseans with gun permits to be able to carry a handgun into a restaurant that sells alcoholic beverages and to be able to leave their weapon locked in their car on school grounds as long as they are there for any ''legitimate purpose.''

As reported by Jointogether.org:

Tenn. Gun Owners Say Guns, Alcohol Can Mix

Gun owners in Tennessee are calling on state lawmakers to allow gun permit-holders to carry handguns into restaurants that sells alcoholic beverages, the Tennesseean reported Dec. 25.

Current law requires a permit holder to leave the weapon locked in a car in the restaurant parking lot.

In addition, gun owners want to be allowed to leave their weapon locked in their car on school grounds as long as they are there for any "legitimate purpose."

"We have a large number of people who have been trained and certified and now, with a seven-year history of carrying in the state, we have a very low, if not nonexistent, incident rate," said John Harris of the Tennessee Firearms Association. "We need to take that into consideration and make reasonable rules on where they can and should be carrying. Permit-holders feel like the guns are safer to the general public, and to them in particular, if they are in the permit-holder's custody and control rather than left unattended in vehicles."

The proposal is being met with strong opposition from restaurant owners, educators, and organizations that support tighter gun-control measures.

"It says they can carry a firearm but they can't drink? How long do you think that will last?" said Ronnie Hart, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Restaurant Association. "It is prohibited right now to carry a firearm in a restaurant or bar. We are very much in favor of keeping that in place. Things happen so fast sometimes that you can't control them."

According to the state Safety Department, 99,130 Tennesseans have concealed-carry permits.

The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion - Our View: In search of sensibility on gun laws 01/03/02

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Our View: In search of sensibility on gun laws </MCC HEAD>

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It is hard to imagine parties more apart than on the issue of gun control and gun ownership.

Clearly there must be middle ground wide enough to drive a tractor-trailer through, a gap separating law-abiding gun owners from those who would deny them their basic constitutional right of gun ownership.

Or separating your basic law-abiding gun owner from those who believe they hold an unfettered right to brandish about any kind of weapon anywhere they might please.[My emphasis]

Add to this latter group, apparently, the Tennessee Firearms Association, and specifically its call to permit the swelling number of Tennesseans holding gun permits to walk into restaurants where alcohol is served toting a concealed weapon, or to bring guns onto school property so long as they are locked in a vehicle and held for a "legitimate purpose."

John Harris of the state Firearms Association believes that restrictions should be relaxed because gun-permit holders have shown they are responsible.

Some things simply do not mix. Alcohol and driving is one. Alcohol and carrying concealed weapons into establishments where alcohol is served is another.

There is, in both cases, a presumption of risk. If legislators cannot anticipate those risks and act accordingly to make it more difficult for people to kill or injure themselves and others, then what is the purpose of legislators and of laws? And what imaginable "legitimate purpose" can be served by bringing firearms onto school property, even where locked inside a vehicle? How soon do some forget the senseless carnage on school grounds across the country?

But the best question yet: How many of those nearly 100,000 Tennesseans obtaining concealed-and-carry permits during the last few years have already abandoned most hope that the state can protect them? A chilling prospect; and a invitation to lawlessness that can become self-fulfilling prophecy.

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My response to the editor dmcconn@oakridger.com

I am a law-abiding gun carrier and, quite apart from your inflammatory and hyperbolic language (tsk tsk, editor, to what audience do you write?), I do believe in my right to carry legally where I wish.

What evidence is there that legal gun carriers are a risk to anyone but the Bad Guys? What evidence is there that a legal gun carrier is a risk to her child's school or to his 'waterin' hole?' Outlaws hazard these with or without laws and with or without guns. That's why they're outlaws.

Finally, what of "...shall not be infringed." is unclear? Our Founding Fathers struggled mightily to teach that the job of legislators is not to merely pass laws but to pass wise laws. Apparently for some the struggle was in vain.

I cite evidence that legal and liberal gun carry is beneficial to societal interests. I commend to your attention Dr. John Lott's More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (U. Chicago, 1998).

The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.

''If the gun's underneath the front seat of your car, and in the parking lot, that's good enough for me,'' said Fate Thomas of Fate's Pig & Pie restaurant on Charlotte Pike. ''I do not think it needs to be at the table with you."

Tell that to the lady in Texas who had a concealed carry permit, and watched her parents get blown away at Luby's cafeteria because she followed the then Texas law prohibiting firearms in restaurants ...

It can happen .. it did happen ... and it does happen ... and it will happen in the future unless Tennessee changes its law to conform with that of Texas. Ask Mr. Thomas if he will be personally responsible for any damage done to any concealed carry permit holder by a perp because the gun was left in the car.

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