The law exempting Tennessee from federal gun regulations, while having little immediate effect, may have broader implications down the road. It comes as part of a states’-rights movement that tries to test the limits of federal power. The Tennessee bill is nearly identical to one signed into law in Montana and similar to ones under consideration in other states. Since Montana’s law does not take effect until Oct. 1, the one in Tennessee, which takes effect July 1, could become the first test case in the courts.

“The purpose of this bill is to let people know we have state sovereignty and the federal government has no business telling us what to do,” State Senator Mae Beavers, a Mount Juliet Republican who sponsored the bill, said in an interview.

The new laws in Tennessee, coming soon after the recent shooting in a church in Kansas of a doctor who performed late-term abortions, and the shooting of a guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington, have prompted intense comment on local Web sites like www.commercialappeal.com, www.knoxnews.com and www.tennessean.com.

Brian Malte, director of state legislation for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Tennessee already had among the least restrictive gun laws in the country. Still, Mr. Malte said, the flurry of pro-gun bills was highly unusual and reflected a push by the gun lobby in a state with a newly sympathetic legislature, of which both houses are now controlled by Republicans.

Gun-rights advocates say expanded rights are needed so that law-abiding citizens can protect themselves in more situations. The new Tennessee laws also include measures that will allow permit holders to carry guns in bars and restaurants, if they are not drinking alcohol, and to carry a loaded rifle or shotgun in their vehicles if the ammunition is in the magazine but not in the chamber, although it can be in the chamber for purposes of self-defense.