Joel Ebert

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

One of the most controversial gun bills of the 2016 legislative session, which would have allowed Tennesseans to carry a handgun without first obtaining a permit, failed to make its way out committee on Tuesday.

The measure would have let anyone over the age of 21 carry a weapon so long as they aren’t prohibited by law from possessing a weapon. The gun could either be concealed or carried in the open.

Proponents of the measure call it “constitutional carry,” while opponents say such a law would add additional burdens to law enforcement.

With a 4-4 vote and one lawmaker electing not to vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to send the bill to the Senate floor.

After the vote, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, vowed not to give up, saying he’d try to convince one of the committee members who didn’t support the measure. “The pass is the one you go for,” he said, referring to Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, who declined to vote on the bill.

The four no votes came from Sens. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon; Douglas Overbey, R-Maryville; Sara Kyle and Lee Harris, who are both Memphis Democrats.

Before the vote, the bill underwent significant discussion as Green and Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, argued in favor of the measure.

Green said the legislation is necessary today because the United States is facing threats from organizations like ISIS, which he said is sending out 100,000 tweets a day to recruit “lone-wolf terrorists.”

Noting that the country’s security has been ensured by a standing army, as well as the FBI and the CIA, Green said that with the presence of modern-day organizations like ISIS, “the armed citizenry is really the only last defense we have.”

Although Green amended the bill to include a provision that would have required gun owners to obtain a training certificate, Col. Tracy Trott, head of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said he still opposed the legislation.

“We just don’t see a need for this type of bill,” he said, praising the current permitting system. Trott said his main concern about Green’s amendment is that there could be varying forms of training coming from different organizations.

After the committee also heard from Jimmy Musice, an attorney with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and Kevin Crawford, a legislative liaison for the state, who said Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration philosophically opposed the measure, Harris fired off a series of questions before concluding the bill is “a bridge too far.”

Roberts, who noted Tennessee’s recent designation from the American Conservative Union, which called it the most conservative state in the nation, questioned, “Why are we not leading on this? Why are we following? It’s a constitutional right.”

Roberts attempted to bolster the case for the bill, arguing that the seven states with permitless carry laws — Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Vermont, Wyoming and, most recently, West Virginia — have not become the “wild, Wild West.”

After the vote, the Tennessee Firearms Association called out two members of the committee, saying they held the legislation “hostage.”

“Sen. Gardenhire 'passed' — that is he pulled a Barack Obama and was 'present but not voting.' Equally troubling but not totally unexpected was Sen. John Stevens who voted 'no' on the bill,” the organization wrote in a blog post on its website that also attacked the governor.

“This battle is not over but we have to accept that Bill Haslam, his minions and too many people living their lives on your tax dollars, as well as several elected officials, are doing everything in their powers to oppress your rights,” the post reads.

On Wednesday, Haslam supported the bill's defeat, saying, "We've passed a lot of bills based on handgun carry permit holders, and it just felt wrong to kind of change the game in the middle of it."

Kathleen Wright, a volunteer with the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, breathed a sigh of relief after the vote.

“This bill could have extremely dangerous implications,” she said, citing statistics about the number of people who obtain guns without undergoing a background check. “We completely support law enforcement and the TBI and what they are doing.”

Committee delays action on gun bills

A House version of Green's bill, sponsored by Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, was removed from the chamber's civil justice subcommittee on Wednesday, effectively halting any action this year.

Several other gun bills have been proposed this session, with some gaining momentum recently, including one sponsored by Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, that originally sought to allow any valid handgun permit holder the ability to sue a person or business in the event that the gun holder was injured or killed by “invitees, trespassers, employees of the person or entity, vicious animals, wild animals and defensible man-made and natural hazards” while in a gun-free zone.

Bill allows suits over gun-free zone incidents

Gresham amended her bill to address concerns expressed by some of her colleagues. While discussing the amendment, Gresham said her goal was to rewrite the bill to get property owners to take down signs indicating gun-free zones.

She cited comments from John Lott, a Fox News columnist, who spoke in favor of several gun bills on Feb. 10 and who also said posting gun-free signs can create problems.

"What you are essentially doing was saying 'Active shooters welcome here,' " Gresham said, noting that the original version of her bill would have made a business owner liable for anything that happened to a gun owner while on the premises.

"This one says, take the sign down and you will have civil immunity in case anything happens," she explained.

Harris said he opposed the bill because it would set a dangerous precedent in the treatment of private property owners.

Gresham's amendment was adopted before the committee voted 6-2 in favor of the bill, which now heads to the Senate floor. Harris and Kyle voted against the measure, while Overbey abstained.

The House version of the bill has yet to be taken up in a subcommittee.

Reach Joel Ebert at 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.