Tennessee Will Now Allow Felons To Own Guns…Of A Sort

By Tom Knighton

The question of restoring rights to felons is a thorny issue. I’m often amazed at how those who want to keep felons disarmed, for example, are quite ready to give them back voting rights as if nothing has ever happened. Nevermind that voting has the potential cause far more bloodshed than a single person with a gun ever could.

Meanwhile, few are talking about arming felons at all.

However, it seems that Tennessee is. Sort of, anyway. They’re set to allow felons to own antique firearms.

Convicted felons can now possess guns in the Volunteer State.

The catch? The guns have to be so old they don’t technically count as firearms under state law. That also means they’d probably be pretty useless in terms of self-defense.

Earlier this year, the state legislature unanimously passed legislation that amended Tennessee’s definition as to what constitutes a firearm in order to make the state’s definition the same as the federal government’s. Notably, the federal government doesn’t consider “antique weapons”—by which the government means guns manufactured prior to 1899—to be firearms. That means, by extension, Tennessee now doesn’t either.

State law previously denied felons—including individuals convicted of nonviolent drug offenses—the right to own any firearms, …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms