Tennessee Clarifies "Guns in Trunks" Law

Author: Ashley Shaw, XpertHR Legal Editor

April 21, 2015

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed into law a bill that changes the state's "Guns in Trunks" law. The new law will clarify any potential confusion caused by current requirements by directly stating that an employer may not terminate an employee solely because he or she has a firearm stored in his or her vehicle on the employer's property. The new law will go into effect on July 1, 2015.

Tennessee's current "Guns in Trunks" law law decriminalized storing a gun in a privately-owned vehicle so long as certain criteria, such as keeping the firearm out of sight, were met. However, under the current wording, it was unclear whether the law made it illegal for an employer to ban guns from employee parking lots or whether the law only made it impossible to convict an individual for transporting a firearm.

The new law directly states that an employer may not terminate or take any adverse employment action against an employee just because the employee had a firearm stored in the manner dictated by law in an employer-owned parking lot. The law applies to all employers regardless of size, but it only applies to employees with valid handgun licenses.

An employer may still ban firearms from all other places on its property and may ban firearms from being stored in vehicles owned by the employer. The new law contains a safe harbor provision to protect an employer from any potential liability caused by properly following the law (i.e., allowing the presence of a gun in the parking lot in compliance with the law).

An employee who suffers an adverse employment action under this law may file a civil suit against his or her employer within a year from when the action took place.