Tennessee: AG says landlords can ban tenants` guns

GGReporter · 10-31-2009, 07:32 AM

Attorney General Bob Cooper says landlords can ban their tenants from bringing firearms into their property even if they have handgun carry permits.

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Cyrano · 10-31-2009, 01:28 PM

Now this will make an interesting court case. The ruling the NRA got in the San Francisco case pertains to the city's housing authority not being able to ban privately owned firearms from city-owned housing. Now we have an instance in which a state attorney general has offered his opinion that a landlord can ban the possession of firearms on private property that the landlord owns, just as the owners/operators of shopping malls can post the malls as gun-free zones since they also are landlords or the landlord's agents.

There is no doubt that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. There is also no doubt in my mind that a gun ban imposed by a landlord infringes on the private citizens' right to keep and bear arms.

However, the landlord has the right to say what can and cannot be done with his private property, but terms of the rental or lease agreement. I am a landlord myself, of one house. I'm easygoing as landlords go; my tenants can keep a cat or a small dog, and if they want to repaint a playroom or plant a garden I allow it. But I could if I chose ban them from keeping pets, repainting or putting in a garden, provided that I state it up front in the lease. If the tenant signs the lease, they accept my terms.

Legally, a ban on guns on rental property may be the same. I'm not a lawyer so I can't state this as a fact. But this is an intersection of two different civil rights, the right to keep and bear arms and the right to personal property. It will be interesting to see what happens if this opinion by the Tennessee Attorney General is challenged in court. A lawyer's opinion is not the law, and it is certainly not adjudicated case law.

blueice · 11-02-2009, 11:10 PM

In my view, most Attorney Generals are nothing, but political hacks.

This issue could be codified by law and not the fleeting opinion of an AG.

In this instance, property rights trump gun rights...After all, what good are gun rights if one losses control over their domain..

10-31-2009, 07:32 AM	#1
GGReporter Magazine Staff Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,276	Tennessee: AG says landlords can ban tenants` guns Attorney General Bob Cooper says landlords can ban their tenants from bringing firearms into their property even if they have handgun carry permits. More...

10-31-2009, 01:28 PM	#2
Cyrano Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: New York Posts: 6,917	Now this will make an interesting court case. The ruling the NRA got in the San Francisco case pertains to the city's housing authority not being able to ban privately owned firearms from city-owned housing. Now we have an instance in which a state attorney general has offered his opinion that a landlord can ban the possession of firearms on private property that the landlord owns, just as the owners/operators of shopping malls can post the malls as gun-free zones since they also are landlords or the landlord's agents. There is no doubt that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. There is also no doubt in my mind that a gun ban imposed by a landlord infringes on the private citizens' right to keep and bear arms. However, the landlord has the right to say what can and cannot be done with his private property, but terms of the rental or lease agreement. I am a landlord myself, of one house. I'm easygoing as landlords go; my tenants can keep a cat or a small dog, and if they want to repaint a playroom or plant a garden I allow it. But I could if I chose ban them from keeping pets, repainting or putting in a garden, provided that I state it up front in the lease. If the tenant signs the lease, they accept my terms. Legally, a ban on guns on rental property may be the same. I'm not a lawyer so I can't state this as a fact. But this is an intersection of two different civil rights, the right to keep and bear arms and the right to personal property. It will be interesting to see what happens if this opinion by the Tennessee Attorney General is challenged in court. A lawyer's opinion is not the law, and it is certainly not adjudicated case law. Last edited by Cyrano; 10-31-2009 at 01:31 PM.

11-02-2009, 11:10 PM	#3
blueice Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Maoistsota, where nothing is allow! Posts: 296	In my view, most Attorney Generals are nothing, but political hacks. This issue could be codified by law and not the fleeting opinion of an AG. In this instance, property rights trump gun rights...After all, what good are gun rights if one losses control over their domain.. __________________ God bless and our Men and Women In Uniform. Me