More Tennessee cities opt out of guns in parks

[BlueJessamine]

Source: The Tennessean

The list of cities and counties opting out of Tennessee's new law that allows people with gun permits to take their weapons into public parks keeps getting longer.

While some city and county governments — including Brentwood, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, and Williamson and Shelby counties — have rushed to exempt their parks, a Nashville lawyer who has worked more than a decade for the new law said he is considering a court challenge.

John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, said the opt-out provision for local governments is a "travesty" and might be challenged in court.

"Did the legislature have the authority to pass the buck?" Harris said. "We are researching it."

Harris said the exemption option also fails to provide any way for gun-permit holders to secure their weapons in vehicles when they arrive at a park and does not address having a gun in a vehicle when traveling on a park road that is used as access to a neighboring residential area.


Read more: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090720/NEWS0203/907200333/1001/NEWS/More+Tennessee+cities+opt+out+of+guns+in+parks