It is amazing to see how many uniformed people there are in
Tennessee when it comes to firearms law. You can still see warning
signs in liquor stores that say  'Warning 5 years imprisonment for
carrying a weapon into an establishment that sells alcohol', simply
because of the incompetence of the Liquor Control Commission to inform
store owners of a change in the law that took place 5 or 6 years ago.
Those warning signs are wrong. I was once informed by a gas station
owner that I could not carry my firearm into his store because he sold
beer. That store owner was wrong.

The law pertaining the carrying of firearms into an establishment
that sells alcohol for off sight consumption as stated earlier was
changed 5 or 6 years ago. It is no longer illegal for me to walk into a
liquor store while carrying a firearm and purchase a bottle of Jack
Daniels or a fine wine for consumption at home. It is no longer illegal
for me to walk into a gas station and pay for my gas while carrying a
firearm, simply because that gas station sells beer.

Tennessee firearms carry law, in its present form, does forbid me
from carrying a firearm into any establishment that sells alcoholic
beverages for on site consumption. So I am therefore not permitted to
go into a nice restaurant, Appleby's, Ruby Tuesday, Sports Page, Sam
Hills etc. and have a meal with my family while carrying a firearm even
though I will not be consuming an alcoholic beverage.

The Bill to change the law is not being crafted to allow carrying a
firearm into a bar and consuming alcohol. Tennesseans in possession of
a handgun carry permit well know the repercussions of carrying a
firearm while consuming even one beer.

It is amazing that a former owner of the Neon Moon beer joint would
make a statement that funeral homes would get rich. Obviously this
former pub owner has no clue as to how many guns were being carried
into her establishment by persons who were not law abiding handgun
carry permit holders.

Another Columbia beer joint owner stated that "it would encourage
people without a permit to carry a firearm into a bar", hello, people
who are carrying a firearm without a permit are already breaking the
law, and they are not deterred from carrying into a bar simply because
another law says they can't. I know of one such person personally that
routinely carry's a .38 snubby in his boot, even while going into
this Columbia bar owner's establishment. How many more do the same?
Most people do not go into a 'beer joint' to drink a coke or two.
People do however go into restaurants to eat a nice meal with their
families, while not consuming alcohol.

I sometimes wonder how many patrons of Luby's café in Kaleen, TX.
would still be alive today had there been even one firearm carry permit
holder in that restaurant when a crazed misfit crashed his truck
through the front glass window and randomly begin taking peoples lives.
One Luby's customer watched in horror as her mother and father were
killed, her firearm, un-retrievable, locked in her cars glove-box.
That woman went on to be elected to the TX. State legislature and was
instrumental in getting the states handgun carry permit law changed.

The bill to change our firearms carry law if passed would put
Tennessee in line with 30 other states that allow law abiding handgun
carry permit holders to carry their firearms into an establishment that
sells alcoholic beverages for on site consumption as long as that
permit holder does not consume said beverages.

It seems to me that some Columbia 'watering hole' owners feel that
Tennessee handgun permit holders are not as responsible nor as
intelligent as carry permit holders in those 30 other states.

Thank You
Anthony Tucker
Culleoka, TN.
(931) 987-0855