Tennessee

Tennessee is a notable case where, unlike most states, a permit was historically required to carry a handgun EITHER openly or concealed. Public Chapter 108 (2021), effective July 1, 2021, removed the permit requirement altogether (Tenn. Code §39-17-1307) for those 21+ (18+ military) who are not prohibited persons, making both open and concealed carry permitless.

Tennessee has no statute prohibiting firearms in places of worship; carry there is left to the property owner, same as any other private property in Tennessee.

T.C.A. § 39-17-1321 makes it lawful to possess a firearm on the premises of a public place where alcoholic beverages are served as long as the permit holder is not consuming alcohol — but Tennessee applies an unusually strict zero-tolerance standard (any measurable BAC voids the exception), stricter than most states' 0.08 threshold. Corroborated via a well-sourced tertiary summary; raw statute text was not independently fetched.

Tennessee has statewide permitless carry for qualifying adults 18+ (Tenn. Code § 39-17-1307, since 2021, age lowered from 21 in 2023), alongside an optional handgun carry permit mainly for reciprocity. No boat/vessel/waterway restriction was found in Tennessee carry law or TWRA boating materials.

T.C.A. §39-17-1306 bars carrying a weapon 'inside any building in which judicial proceedings are in progress' — no exception is made for handgun-carry permit holders — but this is expressly tied to proceedings actually being underway in that building at that time, not a blanket, always-on courthouse ban. If no judicial proceeding is happening in the building, the statute does not apply. General government buildings like a DMV office or city hall (with no judicial proceeding occurring) are not restricted by this or any other Tennessee statute found in research.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1309(b)-(e), as amended effective July 1, 2016, permits ONLY full-time, non-student EMPLOYEES of a public institution of higher education who hold TN's Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit and register with campus police to carry concealed on campus (barred from stadiums/gyms/auditoriums during events). General students, visitors, and standard-permit holders are not covered — this is not a general campus-carry law.

Tenn. Code § 39-17-1359 allows a business to post to prohibit carry; violating a posted premises after notice is trespass. Absent posted or verbal notice, carry is presumptively lawful.

No TN statute requires advance owner consent; owners may post to prohibit carry (Tenn. Code 39-17-1359), and general trespass law (39-14-405) otherwise requires notice — opt-out default.

usacarry.com's Tennessee summary lists 'Airports beyond security checkpoints' as the restriction, which would mean non-secure areas are permitted (consistent with the pattern in TX/IN/KY/MO/OH/WA) — but Wikipedia's 'Gun laws in Tennessee' article does not mention airports at all, and I could not load the actual statute (Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1309 or the specific carry-restrictions section) to confirm the citation or exact wording. Only one usable source, so treating as likely-but-unconfirmed rather than settled.

Tennessee has permitless carry since 2021 for eligible adults 21+ (or 18-20 active/honorably-discharged military). Independently, Tenn. Code Ann. §39-17-1307(e) has a specific motor-vehicle/boat exception: a person may carry a firearm in their own (or lawfully possessed) motor vehicle or boat as long as they are not a prohibited possessor under federal law — confirmed directly from the current statutory text.

No Tennessee statute prohibits firearms in hospitals generally.

Tennessee is permitless-carry (21+). Tenn. Code §39-17-1311's restriction centers on school athletic/related events; the statute affirmatively allows permitted carry in state/county/municipal parks and similar recreational public property, and no rest-area restriction exists. Verified against the statute text directly.

No Tennessee statute found imposing a duty to inform law enforcement of concealed carry, proactively or if asked; permit holders need only notify the Department of Safety of address changes.

Tenn. Code § 39-17-1351(b) requires Tennessee residency, except as provided in subsection (r)(3)(C): a resident of another state who holds a permit from that state and is "employed in this state on a regular basis" (30+ hours/week for 6 consecutive months) may obtain a Tennessee enhanced handgun carry permit — unless their home state already has a reciprocity agreement with Tennessee, in which case no TN permit is needed at all.

Tenn. Code §39-17-1309(b)(1),(c)(1) bans carrying firearms on school property. The main carry-adjacent exception is for SCHOOL EMPLOYEES with a valid handgun carry permit AND specific permission from the school under §49-6-815 — this is a staff-only pathway, not a general exemption for parents, visitors, or the public who happen to hold a permit.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1359 requires that a compliant posted sign itself state (in words 'substantially similar to'): 'Possessing a weapon in an area that has been posted is a criminal offense.' This confirms Tennessee treats mere entry with a properly posted sign as a criminal offense in its own right — the statute mandates the sign say so, and no personal request to leave is required for the base violation.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1314: no city, county, or urban-county government may occupy any part of the field of regulation of transfer, ownership, possession, or transportation of firearms.

Tenn. Code § 2-7-103 controls WHO may be admitted to a polling place (election officials, voters, authorized poll watchers, press) but does not itself prohibit firearms; no separate Tennessee statute banning firearms at polling places was found in this research (TCA §§ 39-17-1309/1314 address schools and municipal discharge ordinances, not polls specifically). Consistent with MAP's classification.

No state-level magazine capacity restriction found.

No state ERPO/red flag law. RECENT: Tennessee enacted anti-red-flag legislation in 2024 preempting any local extreme risk protection order ordinances.

No additional state restriction beyond the federal NFA process for any category. Tenn. Code § 39-17-1302 lists machine guns, SBR/SBS, and silencers among 'prohibited weapons,' but provides a defense to prosecution for anyone in full compliance with the NFA. SBR/SBS were affirmatively removed from the prohibited-weapons list entirely in 2022. The 2017 Hearing Protection Act confirms suppressors are legal state-wide. Pre-1986 transferable machine guns are legal if federally registered — TN adds no separate state registration or license.

Stand Your Ground by statute: Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11-611(b)(2) — no duty to retreat.

No Tennessee statute requires background checks on private firearm transfers. Confirmed via absence from Giffords' UBC list.

Tennessee's 2017 Hearing Protection Act (SB921/HB11) removed firearm silencers from the prohibited-weapons statute (Tenn. Code Ann. §§39-17-1301, -1302) entirely, effective July 1, 2017 — there's no longer a state offense for a federal registration to excuse.

Tenn. Code Ann. §39-17-1302(a)(3) still lists machine guns as a prohibited weapon; the statute's federal-compliance exception additionally requires the owner to 'retain proof of registration' — a real, codified state duty on top of the ATF paperwork itself.

§39-17-1302(a)(4) lists short-barrel rifles as prohibited, subject to the same NFA-compliance-plus-retain-proof-of-registration structure as machine guns.

§39-17-1302(a)(4) lists short-barrel shotguns as prohibited, subject to the same NFA-compliance-plus-retain-proof-of-registration structure as machine guns.

AOWs aren't listed in §39-17-1302(a) (unregulated), but 'explosive weapons' at (a)(1) are prohibited, and the statute's NFA-compliance exception is written to cover only subdivisions (a)(3)-(4) — machine guns and SBR/SBS — not explosive weapons/destructive devices, which have only narrow carve-outs for exploding targets, industrial/commercial use, licensed dealers, and museums.