Tennessee Senate approves parking lot guns bill
The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill to give people with handgun carry permits the ability to store their loaded firearms in their vehicles wherever they are parked.
The Senate voted 28-5 to approve the bill sponsored by Republican Speaker Ron Ramsey of Sullivan County.
"If you allow people to come onto your parking lot then they have the right to have that firearm in the car," Ramsey told reporters before the vote.
"Senator Charlotte Burks" of Monterey, one of the five Democrats to vote against the measure after a 24-minute debate on Monday, asked whether supporters had had persuaded large employers such as automaker Volkswagen AG to drop their objection to giving up the right to ban firearms from their parking lots.
"Some are comfortable some are not," said Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin and a co-sponsor of the measure. "There are some in the business community ... who maybe wanted to go a slightly different direction."
Ramsey and other supporters have noted that state law that already allows non-student adults to have guns stored in vehicles parked in school or college parking lots. The bill approved Monday would extend that right any handgun carry permit holder.
The companion bill is scheduled to be heard in a House subcommittee on Wednesday, where the property rights arguments and campus concerns are expected to get a more extensive hearing.
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