Tennessee Open Carry Laws

Open Carry Laws

The bottom line

Open carry of a handgun is legal in Tennessee without a permit. Since July 1, 2021, any adult who is at least 21 (or 18 if active-duty military or honorably discharged) and who can lawfully possess a handgun may carry that handgun openly or concealed in public, with no state permit required. Tenn. Code § 39-17-1307(g). That age structure is unchanged, and the 18-and-older path also covers honorably discharged reserve and National Guard members who completed basic training. Tenn. Code Ann. 39-17-1307(g)(1). The same place restrictions that apply to permit holders apply to open carry.

For long guns (rifles and shotguns) the rule is different and more restrictive in practice. Tennessee does not authorize the open carry of loaded long guns in public the way it does for handguns. Long guns carried openly in public draw law enforcement attention and may run into other statutes (going armed, disorderly conduct, hunting-only carry on certain lands). Treat long-gun open carry as a hunting-and-transport activity, not a daily-carry option.

If you want broader location access (state and national parks, roadside rest areas, state forests, WMAs), you still need a permit. The two Tennessee permits, the Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit (§ 39-17-1351) and the Concealed Handgun Carry Permit (§ 39-17-1366), are different in this respect. Only the Enhanced permit authorizes open carry. The Concealed-only permit, by its statutory terms, does not.

How the three carry tracks compare

Tennessee has three ways an adult can legally carry a handgun in public. Open carry is allowed on two of them and not on the third.

The Concealed Handgun Carry Permit was created in 2019 as a lower-cost, shorter-training alternative. Education time can be as little as about 90 minutes via an approved online course, compared with the eight-hour in-person course required for the Enhanced permit. The trade-off is that the Concealed permit holder must keep the handgun concealed at all times and gets narrower out-of-state reciprocity.

If you carry under the permitless-carry exception, you have the same open-vs-concealed flexibility as an Enhanced permit holder, but the Concealed-only permit holder cannot use a permit to carry openly. A Concealed permit holder who wants to open-carry on a given day is relying on the permitless-carry exception in § 39-17-1307(g), not on the permit.

Who can open carry

Under § 39-17-1307(g), you may open-carry a handgun without a permit if you meet all of the following:

• You are at least 21 years old, or at least 18 with qualifying military service (honorably discharged or retired veteran, honorably discharged reserve or National Guard member who completed basic training, or active-duty or current reserve or Guard member).
• You may lawfully possess a handgun under both state and federal law.
• You are in a place where you are lawfully present.
• You have not been convicted of stalking.
• You have not been convicted of DUI two or more times in the prior ten years, or once in the prior five years.
• You have not been adjudicated as a mental defective, judicially committed, hospitalized in a mental institution, or had a conservator appointed by reason of a mental defect.
• You are not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm.

Non-residents who are lawfully present in Tennessee and who meet these conditions may open-carry under the same rule. There is no residency requirement.

Who cannot open carry

Open carry is unlawful for anyone barred from firearm possession. Under § 39-17-1307(b) and 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), this includes:

• Convicted felons.
• People convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.
• People subject to an active order of protection or qualifying restraining order.
• People involuntarily committed to a mental institution or adjudicated as mentally defective.
• People dishonorably discharged from the armed forces.
• Unlawful users of, or those addicted to, a controlled substance.
• People who are not U.S. citizens and not lawful permanent residents (subject to federal carve-outs).

For this group, openly carrying a firearm is a separate criminal offense on top of any underlying federal prohibitor charge.

What you can and cannot carry openly

• Handguns: Loaded open carry is allowed in public, on foot or in a vehicle, by qualifying adults. § 39-17-1307(g).
• Long guns (rifles and shotguns): Tennessee does not extend permitless open carry of long guns to general public spaces. Carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun openly in public is functionally limited to hunting and similar lawful activity, and may attract enforcement under going-armed or related statutes. One secondary source summarizes the rule as "long guns may only be carried unloaded" outside the home and similar contexts, and the National Park Service summary of Tennessee law explains that open carry of a rifle or shotgun off private property is limited to hunting.
• NFA items (machine guns, short-barreled rifles/shotguns, destructive devices): Open or concealed possession is prohibited except through full federal NFA compliance. § 39-17-1302 governs prohibited weapons; certain otherwise-prohibited firearms are lawful only when registered under the National Firearms Act. Open carry of a machine gun, SBR, SBS, or destructive device on public streets is not authorized by Tennessee law.

Where open carry is prohibited

Open carry follows the same statutory off-limits map as concealed carry. The permitless-carry exception in § 39-17-1307(g) does not override these:

• K-12 schools, school buildings, school property, school buses, and school-sponsored events. § 39-17-1309.
• Courthouses and any building in which judicial proceedings are in progress. § 39-17-1306.
• Public meetings of governmental entities where the entity has posted notice. § 39-17-1306, § 39-17-1359.
• State and local government buildings with posted notice. § 39-17-1311. (Outdoor public-park areas have specific carve-outs for permit holders; check the property type.)
• Bars, restaurants, and other premises serving alcohol for on-premises consumption, when the carrier is consuming alcohol or when the premises is posted under § 39-17-1359. A handgun carry permit holder who violates the no-consumption rule faces a three-year permit suspension.
• Posted private property and posted public property under § 39-17-1359 (compliant signage; offense is a Class B misdemeanor).
• Federal property and federal facilities (post offices, federal courthouses, military installations, certain federally administered lands). Federal law controls, not state permissive carry.

Property owners and businesses may bar firearms on their property regardless of the permit status of the carrier. § 39-17-1359 makes ignoring a compliant posted notice a separate offense.

Practical risks unique to open carry

Open carry is lawful in Tennessee but uncommon in daily public life. Two practical risk points come up repeatedly in the sources.

1. Increased police contact. The Memphis Police Department's permitless-carry guidance notes that more open carry has produced more 911 calls about armed individuals. The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that being armed in public, by itself, is not a basis for an investigative detention. But in practice, an open-carrier should expect more frequent voluntary citizen-police encounters and should be prepared to identify themselves if asked and to demonstrate compliance with § 39-17-1307(g) eligibility on the spot.

2. Going-armed / manner-of-carry issues. § 39-17-1307(b) still criminalizes carrying a firearm with the intent to go armed in a way that is not within the constitutional-carry or permit exceptions. Brandishing, waving the firearm, drawing it for non-defensive purposes, or carrying in a manner that appears threatening can convert lawful open carry into a § 39-17-1307(b) charge or an offense under aggravated-assault statutes. Sources caution to keep the handgun in a secure holster and to avoid handling the firearm in public except as needed.

Carrying while under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances is a separate offense regardless of open or concealed manner.

Common open-carry mistakes that lead to charges

• Open-carrying onto posted property (private or government) without checking for signage compliant with § 39-17-1359.
• Open-carrying onto K-12 school grounds, including pickup/drop-off lines. § 39-17-1309.
• Open-carrying inside a courthouse, courthouse annex, or any building hosting active judicial proceedings. § 39-17-1306.
• Open-carrying a handgun while consuming alcohol at a restaurant or bar. § 39-17-1321(b).
• Open-carrying long guns (rifles or shotguns) in non-hunting contexts in public.
• Open-carrying when you are a prohibited person under federal law (felons, domestic-violence misdemeanants, those subject to qualifying protective orders, unlawful drug users, etc.).
• Drawing or manipulating the firearm in a way a reasonable person would find threatening, which can be charged as going armed under § 39-17-1307(b) or as aggravated assault.

Why some people still get a permit

The 2021 permitless-carry law did not abolish the Enhanced or Concealed permits, and many Tennessee carriers still hold one. Key reasons that apply to open carriers:

• Out-of-state reciprocity. An Enhanced permit is recognized by most other states; a Concealed permit by fewer. Permitless carry stops at the Tennessee state line.
• Location access in Tennessee. Enhanced and Concealed permit holders may carry in roadside rest areas, state and national parks, state forests, and Wildlife Management Areas where signage allows; constitutional carriers do not get the same statutory access in these locations.
• Federal GCA-Improvements-Act-style NICS exemption (Enhanced permit only). The Tennessee Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit is currently on the ATF Brady Permit Chart as a NICS alternative at the gun counter; the Concealed-only permit (CHCP) is NOT currently on that chart. Verify the chart at atf.gov before relying on this.
• Law-enforcement interactions. A permit demonstrates that the carrier has cleared a background check and completed training, which some carriers and instructors find smooths brief stops.

Long guns: a separate analysis

Tennessee statute does not extend the broad permitless open-carry rule for handguns to long guns. The handgunlaw.us summary states that long guns "may only be carried unloaded" in the relevant out-of-home contexts, and the National Park Service Tennessee summary explains that open carry of a shotgun or rifle off the carrier's private property or out of their home is for hunting purposes. For practical day-to-day public carry, treat long guns as transport-only firearms outside of hunting, range, and similar lawful contexts. Carry them unloaded and cased when in public unless you are in a setting where loaded long-gun carry is plainly lawful (hunting in season, your own land, a range).

Ambiguity and risk notes

• The sourced materials repeatedly summarize the long-gun rule in different terms ("loaded openly without permit" for handguns versus "long guns may only be carried unloaded"). The statutes themselves do not contain a clean, one-line "no loaded long-gun open carry in public" rule, but the operative restrictions come from § 39-17-1307, hunting and wildlife regulations, and the general going-armed framework. Confirm the rule for your specific use case (transport, hunting, range, demonstration) before relying on it.
• "Open carry" as a phrase is not defined by a single Tennessee statute. The operative test is whether the firearm is visible to others in public, including partially visible without moving clothing.
• Constitutional carry covers handguns. It does not authorize prohibited weapons under § 39-17-1302 (machine guns, SBRs, SBSs, suppressors not registered under NFA, destructive devices) regardless of how they are carried.
• Local ordinances cannot expand or contract permitless open carry under the state preemption statute, § 39-17-1314. Local governments may still post their own government buildings under § 39-17-1311.

Statute reference table