By Charlotte Underwood
NASHVILLE, TN (WLAF) – State gun laws are changing as of Jan 1, 2020, with Tennessee Senate Bill 705. Tennessee is adding a second option for gun owners interested in applying for a handgun permit.
  Currently the state has one type of handgun permit, which allows permit holders to carry both open and concealed. It requires an 8 hour class and costs $100, as well as requiring various background checks. Those requirements will remain the same, but the permit is being re-titled as “an enhanced handgun permit.”
After the new year, a second option will be offered called a “concealed only handgun permit,” which will only allow gun holders to carry concealed. This second option has different requirements and costs around $35 less.  This option requires only a 90-minute training course and no hands on class training. With this permit, handguns cannot be carried openly in public. The concealed carry permit can be obtained via an online course with no actual firearms training or prior firearms experience.
Another bill that takes effect the first of the year deals with firearms and ammunition and makes it a Class A misdemeanor offense for the transfer of a firearm to a person knowing that the person: “has been judicially committed to a mental institution or adjudicated as a mental defective unless the person’s right to possess firearms has been restored; or is receiving inpatient mental health or substance abuse treatment at a hospital or treatment resource.”  (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/27/2019-6AM)