Exploding targets illegal in Tennessee
Or so says the Attorney General. Additionally, there is no appropriate license to make it legal. This affects Tannerite too, apparently.
17 Responses to “Exploding targets illegal in Tennessee”
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February 10th, 2015 at 11:50 am
And TN was where we got all our good fireworks when I was a kid. We found a way to openly ignore that law in IN some years ago. Is it time to start just ignoring all of the laws yet? I mean, if they want you, there’s something they can get you on anyway.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:53 am
And yet, Academy Sports sells tannerite targets, right out in the open… Huh…Think maybe the AG is an idiot?
February 10th, 2015 at 12:19 pm
If you read through the linked analysis it seems pretty clear that the AG is right because TN law doesn’t include the same “sporting” exclusions that federal law and most other states have.
Should be pretty easy to get that changed during the next legislative session, no?
February 10th, 2015 at 12:45 pm
Well the opinion was requested by a very pro gun state rep, so I imagine that there will be legislation introduced shortly.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Yeah, Sportsman’s Warehouse sells it. They may have missed that memo too.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:49 pm
Texas has the potato cannon exception to AOW status for your potato cannon, where such destructive devices are legal if used for pyrotechnic purposes only (making the boom without a projectile spud).
Which is exactly what I am sure my kids did with the ones I built them, making only booms, when they took the spudguns and a 10 pound bag of russets into the woods to play. I’m sure they planted the taters for future use of woodland critters, and never fired any out of the spudguns. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
Perhaps TN has a similar exception under law for pyrotechnic devices, regardless of their manner of ignition/detonation?
February 10th, 2015 at 2:30 pm
It is both widely sold and clearly illegal in California, too, with many documented arrests.
February 10th, 2015 at 2:42 pm
@mikee – The AG’s analysis does point out that there are “specific defenses for military or law-enforcement use, for use related to a lawful industrial or commercial enterprise, for dramatic performances and scientific research, and for display at museums”
But you’d get the burden of proving it was for one of those purposes.
And even though places may currently sell it, it wouldn’t surprise me if stores pulled it in TN due to this letter.
February 10th, 2015 at 2:51 pm
Sounds like a good AG to me. He’s telling people how he’ll argue the state’s law if it comes up in court. In favor of the state. Which is his duty. If there’s an ambiguity, it’s up to the courts, or even better the legislature, to resolve it.
February 10th, 2015 at 2:54 pm
I saw the same thing MattW did. You can drive a truck through the “dramatic performances and scientific research” hole.
February 10th, 2015 at 3:01 pm
So if nobody shows up for my ‘dramatic performance’ because I have no talent or advertising, it’s still a performance right?
Maybe it’s research into dramatic performances? 🙂
February 10th, 2015 at 3:16 pm
@KM – Or just prepare a brief hypothesis on the results of shooting a binary explosive with a high speed projectile.
Research Project Code Name: BIG BOOM
Hypothesis: If I shoot a binary explosive with a 62 grain projectile traveling at a muzzle velocity of 2,000 ft/sec then I expect the binary explosive to go BOOM
Results: The binary explosive went BOOM when struck by a 62 grain projectile traveling 2,000 ft/sec.
Done and done, loophole covered.
February 10th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
Sounds like reloading powder is illegal too..?
February 10th, 2015 at 5:37 pm
The one question the State AG “forgot” to ask was “What does the State Constitution say about the right to Bear Arms?”
HINT: ” . . .the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.”
The only authority granted politicians is regulation with a view to prevent crime. Since you can’t “prevent” a crime which has not yet been committed, thus not a crime, the pols therefore must makes tings crimes even when they are not. Crimes require intent to do wrong. and laws which fail to address intent are, I believe, crimes themselves. Thus, those who issue these laws are criminals.
Well, if the AG can make something a crime by issuing an opinion, why can’t the rest of us make his opinion null and void by issuing our own?
February 11th, 2015 at 12:35 am
The AG didn’t write the law, he just answered a question about the law. Making, selling, buying, and possessing unmixed binary explosives is perfectly legal under TN state law. Once they are mixed, they constitute an explosive that is illegal for unlicensed people to possess. There is no exception in the TN law for exploding targets (easily fixed by our current cabal of legislators) and there is no state license that allows for that use. This is not an infringement on the right to bear arms and there is no right to bear exploding targets. I personally enjoy blowing stuff up and hope the TN law is amended with an exception for binary exploding targets. Find out who your State Rep is and write them an email. These are the same people that legalized switch blades … I think this should be right up their alley!
February 11th, 2015 at 10:50 am
@CarlS, thanks for my Wednesday morning lols – they go great with coffee
February 11th, 2015 at 8:01 pm
Since explosives can be and are used in war, they are obviously protected as “arms” by the second amendment.