Tennessee lawmakers are reviewing proposed changes to enhanced handgun permit training that would ban live firearms and ammunition from classroom sessions.
The Department of Safety says the changes are meant to improve safety and limit liability during training courses.
What the proposed rules do:
The new rules focus on the classroom portion of enhanced handgun permit courses, which currently include both classroom learning and range training. Key changes include:
- No live firearms or ammunition in the classroom. Only the shooting range portion would allow live fire.
- Instructors must hold the same enhanced permit they are teaching.
- Schools cannot share students’ personal information outside of the department or the school.
The Department of Safety says these rules are designed to protect both students and instructors during training.
Why the changes were proposed:
The department explained that the rules were prompted after an incident in which a student was accidentally shot in a classroom.
“The classroom is for learning the laws and understanding how a firearm works,” a department representative said. “The range portion is where you learn how to shoot, load and handle a gun safely.”
Officials say the changes are not meant to limit a person’s right to carry a firearm, but to ensure safety standards are followed in training.
Concerns from firearms instructors:
Instructors expressed concerns that the rules could make essential skills harder to teach.
“If we can only use disabled handguns in the classroom portion, it would make it impossible to teach trigger control, which is an essential part of the firearms training process,” Instructor Johnathan Lowe says. “It would make it impossible for us to teach administrative operations such as racking the slide, loading the pistol, unloading the pistol with dummy ammunition in the classroom.”
Another instructor noted that requiring students and instructors to leave firearms in their vehicles could pose a theft risk, referencing a recent report that showed more than 1,200 guns were stolen from vehicles in early December.
Next steps:
After discussion in the Government Operations Committee, lawmakers approved a 30-day stay on the rule. This gives the Department of Safety time to work with instructors and clarify concerns before the rule returns for further review.
