Tennessee Senate Bill SB1176

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/6/25

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13, relative to firearm regulations.

Summary

SB1176 amends Tennessee’s firearm preemption law in Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 by creating a narrow exception for local governments meeting specific population thresholds. Under the bill, a city, town, municipality, or metropolitan government with at least 181,000 residents and located in a county with at least 366,200 residents, based on the 2020 census or later, would be allowed to regulate the manner of storage of firearms, firearm ammunition, and firearm accessories. The bill does not broadly rewrite state gun laws; instead, it carves out a local authority exception from Tennessee’s general restrictions on local firearm regulation. Its practical effect would be to permit certain large local governments to adopt ordinances or rules addressing how firearms and related items are stored, while leaving the rest of the state’s firearm regulatory framework unchanged. The act is set to take effect July 1, 2025.

Impact

SB1176 would amend Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1314(b) by adding a new population-based exception to the state’s firearm preemption scheme. The affected parties would be local governments that meet the specified population criteria, which could gain authority to regulate firearm storage, ammunition storage, and storage of firearm accessories. For residents and gun owners in those jurisdictions, the bill could create new local compliance obligations that do not exist elsewhere in the state.

Sentiment

No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate, support, or opposition in the supplied materials. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears narrowly tailored and administrative in nature, but because it touches firearm regulation and local control, it would likely draw interest from both gun-rights advocates and local-government proponents. The absence of recorded action makes the overall sentiment indeterminate from the available record.

Contention

The main point of contention is likely the bill’s creation of a local exception to Tennessee’s firearm preemption law. Supporters would likely favor giving large municipalities flexibility to address firearm storage safety concerns, while opponents may argue that the bill weakens statewide uniformity and could lead to a patchwork of local gun rules. The population thresholds also make the bill highly targeted, which may raise questions about whether it is intended to apply to a specific city or county rather than establishing a general policy for all similarly situated local governments.