Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Pro-Second Amendment Group, Red State Brawl In Court

Flag of Tennessee (Thomas R Machnitzki/Wikimedia Commons)

Pro-Second Amendment organizations have filed lawsuits to invalidate gun laws across the country for decades, but Hughes v. Lee, involving concealed carry in Tennessee, is not the usual Second Amendment case.

That’s because the “Lee” in this litigation is Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, the governor of a state that ranks in the bottom ten of “states most likely to be sued by gun-rights groups.” Yet, attorneys from the office of Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti were squaring off against Gun Owners of America (GOA) in front of the Tennessee Court of Appeals Tuesday.

GOA Director of State and Local Affairs Chris Stone told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the issue involves firearms laws dating back over a century, Tennessee Code sections 39-17-1307(a), covering “intent to go armed” for use in a confrontation and 39-17-1311(a), which prohibited carrying firearms at a number of locations, including public parks, playgrounds, civic centers and other specified public recreational areas. Stone noted that both laws effectively criminalized exercising one’s Second Amendment rights, especially if a person was exercising “permitless carry,” which Lee signed into law in 2021.

Last August GOA & @GunFoundation secured a victory that turned TN into a Constitutional Carry state.

Days later, the AG APPEALED our victory & said the courts “went too far.”🙄

Today we’re in court to let TN know there is no “too far” when it is violating the Second Amendment. https://t.co/mSdFA76QoT

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 23, 2026

“There’s a holdover in the Tennessee Code from, I want to say the 1800s, that is called the intent to go armed and that has stayed on the books in Tennessee,” Stone said. “And it was an old code that basically prevented people from being armed as a terror to the public. In other words, somebody running around with a rifle actually being, violent or crazed or, part of an actual known gang rolling into town somewhere with their posse to threaten people and basically say, we’re in charge.”

The gun-rights group won the lawsuit on summary judgement in a Gibson County court in August 2025, but Skrmetti appealed the ruling. The Tennessee attorney general’s office defended their decision, arguing that GOA made errors in the process of challenging the law.

“We’re litigating because this case was brought in the wrong court, using the wrong standard, seeking the wrong relief,” Skrmetti said in a statement when reached for comment by the DCNF. “Constitutional concerns about our gun laws need to be resolved the same way every other constitutional concern is resolved.  The rule of law means everyone needs to follow the same rules.”

“That’s just a common tactic that the state uses to nitpick and torpedo cases. The real issue is that the attorney general of Tennessee is supporting infringements on the Second Amendment and is fighting against the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Stone said when asked about Skrmetti’s comments. “He should have just let the original decision stand instead of continuing his assault on the right to carry a firearm in public.”

Hughes v. Lee was filed as a civil case and was heard by a three-judge panel because it presented a constitutional challenge to state laws, the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) said. During Tuesday’s oral arguments, Tennessee argued that the state Legislature was the proper venue to address what it admitted were constitutional issues with the law.

Stone told the DCNF that GOA was contesting the law in court because the language of the two statutory provisions could be used to target people who end up in a self-defense situation outside of their home, adding that the Legislature had failed to address the issue. (RELATED: Biden Justice Really Worried Judges Might Actually Apply Second Amendment In Gun Cases)

“The reason why we wanted to do this wasn’t just because it was some random old code on the book, is that technically you didn’t have an affirmative right to self-defense in Tennessee outside of your dwelling,” Stone said. “That if you were carrying, even though they have concealed carry permits and they had an interesting version of kind of permit less carry, it ran into all sorts of issues too, because of their parks issue, which prevents carry on greenways and in public parks. Well, those are all over the state of Tennessee.”

“So you could be carrying, quote unquote, ‘constitutionally without a permit,’ but you walk onto a public greenway that you didn’t know was a greenway, you get in a justifiable situation where you have to defend yourself, you can get charged under Tennessee’s intent to go armed law and in violation because you’re on a public greenway,” Stone continued.