“Guns in Bars” Revived in State House

Tennessee lawmakers have reopened the controversy over carrying guns in bars and restaurants. The sponsor of last year’s law got approval for a new version from a House subcommittee Wednesday.

The law passed last year states that legally permitted handguns are allowed in businesses that serve alcohol as long as they also serve a certain number of meals per week.

A Davidson County chancellor ruled that law was unconstitutionally vague, because a reasonable person couldn’t tell if an establishment qualified.

Now Memphis Republican Curry Todd is pushing a new bill that he says should draw the line more clearly.

“Allowing a carry-permit holder to carry in any establishment where alcohol beverages are served.”

The bill does allow establishments to bar guns on their property if they choose, as long as signs are posted prominently.

But Nashville restaurant owner Randy Rayburn says that approach is backwards. He thinks the bill should say guns are banned unless a business specifically allows them.

Rayburn says other cities are trying to steer convention business away from Tennessee, using the so-called “guns in bars” issue to make the state sound like the Wild West.

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Rayburn emerged last year as the spokesman for the hospitality industry on the gun-carry issue. He operates the Cabana, the Midtown Café and the Sunset Grill in Nashville.

Rayburn says the issue is threatening jobs by scaring away convention and tourist business.

“This has been used against our industry by our competitors across the country, to encourage tourism and conventions to not come to our cities in Tennessee. Tourism…the hospitality industry is our second largest employer and the second largest private industry, private industry, in this state. We feel it’s very critical to our industry that our customers and our employees feel safe.”

Representative Curry Todd says businesses will be able to download an eight and a half inch by eleven inch sign, with the approved “no guns” wording, free off the Internet.

Todd, a retired Memphis police officer, says his new bill will collect all the penalties for misbehaving while carrying a firearm into one section of Tennessee law.

Drinking while carrying an otherwise legally permitted firearm, or simply being caught drunk while you’re carrying, will become a misdemeanor with a $500 fine and up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, he says.

And the permit holder could lose his license to carry, forever, if the judge so rules, Todd says.

Read the law adopted last year here.

The new bill is HB 3125 Todd/SB 3012 Jackson.

Todd says he is still pursuing another bill which would further define exactly what a bar is.

“We’re working on that bill as we speak. I now have an amendment being drawn to allow those places who are not restaurants, to allow them to obtain a liquor-by-the-drink license, with a higher fee, and we put them in classifications based on the seating capacity. Therefore there is no ambiguity in the statute. [Bars] can go in and get a legitimate license without having to go in there and tell the ABC [Alcoholic Beverage Commission] that their primary purpose is serving food, when it’s not.”