1 DUI in 5 Years Will Cause TN TICS to Deny Transaction

What are these conditions that must be satisfied in order to avoid being charged with the crime of carrying a handgun with the intent to go armed?

• The person must be at least 21 years old (or for those in the military or honorably discharged from the military, at least 18 years old) (Note that a federal lawsuit has already been filed which asserts that the differential treatment of 18-20 year olds is a federal civil rights violation, see, Bassett v. Slatery);
  
• The person must “lawfully” possess a “handgun” (you cannot carry a rifle, shotgun or a handgun with a barrel of 12 inches or more, see TCA § 39-11-106(a)(18), under the Governor’s law);
  
• The person must be “in a place where the person is lawfully present” – the Legislative record is unclear on what this element is intended to accomplish other than being a basis for some category of criminal charge;
  
• The person has never been convicted of the misdemeanor crime of stalking under TCA § 39-17-315 (note that this is a nonviolent misdemeanor in Tennessee and sets a precedent for restricting 2nd Amendment rights based on other nonviolent crimes);
  
• The person has not had one or more DUI’s in the last 5 years;
  
• The person has not had two or more DUI’s in the last 10 years;
  
• The person has never been “adjudicated as a mental defective, judicially committed to or hospitalized in a mental institution pursuant to title 33, or had a court appoint a conservator for the person by reason of a mental defect”; and
  
• The person is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm by 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) as it existed on January 1, 2021.

All of these conditions must be met for the exception to apply. An officer could stop a person and detain them until the officer runs one or more background checks to determined if each of these conditions are met.

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