NASHVILLE -- Despite voicing doubts, Gov. Phil Bredesen on Friday signed into law legislation allowing Tennessee's 222,000 handgun-carry permit holders to bring loaded weapons into federal, state and local parks.

In his notification letter to House Speaker Kent Williams, the governor said that, while he signed House Bill 716, "I continue to have concerns about the inclusion of local parks in this bill."

"I do want to urge local governments to use the opt-out provisions of this bill to remove parks from its effect when they are located close to schools and other places where large numbers of children congregate," the governor said.

Chattanooga City Council Chairman Jack Benson said he expected the city to do just that.

"I feel certain that the city's going to opt out on it," he said. "I'm disappointed that they (the General Assembly) usurped our authority. We've got home rule, and we already had an ordinance in place prohibiting it in parks. So we have to come back and do it again."

The law takes effect in state and federal parks immediately, but it will not go into effect in local parks until Sept. 1. The delay is to give cities and counties time to enact provisions that exclude guns from parks, playgrounds, greenways, bicycle paths and other areas if they wish.

Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mount Juliet, who sponsored the parks bill, said she was pleased by the governor's decision to sign the bill.

"I think he'll find there will be no incidents," she said.

On another front, the governor said he was allowing a separate measure, House Bill 1796, to become law without his signature, even though he believes the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act "represents a fringe constitutional theory that I believe will be quickly dispensed with by the federal courts."

The bill states that a gun manufactured entirely in Tennessee and stamped "made in Tennessee" is not subject to federal firearms laws.

The governor signed yet a third bill allowing permit holders to transport loaded rifles and shotguns in their vehicles.

Gov. Bredesen recently vetoed another bill allowing handgun-carry permit holders to go armed in establishments, including nightclubs, that sell whiskey, wine and beer. Lawmakers easily overrode the veto.

Gov. Bredesen later said the guns-in-parks legislation wasn't as bad as the guns-in-bars bill.

"I'll have to say I don't think it has the same severity in the sense (that) it's not mixing alcohol with guns, which is the really dangerous piece of it for me," he said.

Despite that, one of the park bill's sponsors, Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, said he understood a deal had been struck with the governor on the bill. The compromise involved the sponsors agreeing to remove the local park provision in exchange for the governor not vetoing the bill as well as another bill that seeks to block local beer boards from requiring licensees to ban guns.

Gov. Bredesen appeared perplexed when asked about the matter Thursday, and Sen. Beavers declared earlier Friday that the "deal is off."