Tennessee legislature passes guns-in-bars bill

In November we reported that a Tennessee judge had overturned a state law allowing guns in bars because it was "fraught with ambiguity." But with a veto-proof majority, the Tennessee legislature has approved a new law allowing guns in any restaurant that serves alcohol. "If it becomes law as expected, it allows more than 270,000 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits -- plus millions of others from states whose permits are recognized by Tennessee -- to go armed into any business serving alcohol of any kind," Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal in Mamphis reports. Gov. Phil Bresden vetoed the previous bill before the legislature voted to override the veto.

In January we reported on tourism interests speaking out against the bill, but those protests and one Republican representative's passionate speech asking "What line will we not cross for the NRA?" were not enough to prevent the bill from passing, Locker writes. Individual restaurant owners can still post signs prohibiting guns in their business. Lawmakers declined to add an amendment that would have "banned guns in businesses deriving less than half of their income from food sales and required owners of such places to post gun-ban signs," Locker writes. (Read more)