Tennessee law a gauge for gun rights support

Tennessee law a gauge for gun rights support In conservative Murfreesboro, gun rights are sacred, but some say allowing permit holders to carry weapons into city parks is going too far. Tourism is a concern too. By Richard Fausset
July 9, 2009 Reporting from Murfreesboro, Tenn. -- Like many Tennesseans, Mary Beth Sauls supports the right to bear arms. But as she sat by a public pool full of splashing kids recently, the 54-year-old grandmother said she was worried about a new state law that may soon allow gun-permit holders to carry their weapons into city parks like this one.

"I don't think this should really be a place for guns, with all these children around," said Sauls, as she watched a grandson competing in a swim meet.

The Tennessee law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is the latest in a nationwide push by gun-rights advocates to tear down the legal walls that have prevented permit holders from packing their weapons into previously forbidden territory.

In May, Congress voted to allow guns in America's national parks. A number of similar bills were introduced in state legislatures this year to allow guns in parks, bars, college campuses and churches.

In Murfreesboro, a fast-growing city 40 minutes southeast of Nashville, the guns-in-parks law has emerged as a test of how far even a deeply conservative community will go to uphold gun rights. The law allows local governments to opt out and keep their parks gun-free -- a move that the City Council will consider today.

Some residents, like Henry Banks, 58, said they had seen enough "crazy adults" at children's sporting events to support the ban.