Tennessee
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5316
Tennessee
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Tennessee. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the Southwest Territory and early statehood periods to the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, frontier and militia records, river trade and transportation archives, manufacturing and law-enforcement collections, and oral histories tied to Tennessee people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, Tenn. Const. of 1796, art. XI, § 26(1796)Provided that the freemen of the state have a right to keep and bear arms for their common defense.Item type:Item, Tenn. Const. art. I, § 26(1831)Establishes the right to keep and bear arms for the "free white men of this State."Item type:Item, 1837-1838 Tenn. Pub. Acts 200, ch. 137, § 1.(1837)Prohibited any merchant from selling a Bowie knife or Arkansas tooth pick. Punishable by fine of $100-500 and imprisonment for $1-6 months.Item type:Item, 1837-38 Tenn. Pub. Acts 200, ch. 137, § 1(1837)An Act to Suppress the Sale and Use of Bowie Knives and Arkansas Tooth Picks in this State, ch. 137, § 1: That if any merchant, . . . shall sell, or offer to sell . . . any Bowie knife or knives, or Arkansas tooth picks . . . such merchant shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof upon indictment or presentment, shall be fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not less than one month nor more than six months.Item type:Item, 1831 Tenn. Pub. Acts 314(1831)Acts 1741, c. 24, § 40: Prohibited any "slave" from being armed with a gun, sword, club, or other weapon without a certificate from a court.Item type:Item, 1837-1838 Tenn. Pub. Acts 201, ch. 137, § 4(1837)Prohibited the stabbing or cutting of another person with any knife or weapon known as a "Bowie knife, Arkansas tooth pick, or any knife or weapon that shall in form, shape or size resemble a Bowie knife," regardless of whether the person dies. Punishable by imprisonment for 3-15 years.Item type:Item, 1836 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 673(1821)Shooting, 1821—Chapter 68, § 1: [A]ny person or persons who shall after the first of January next, shoot at a mark within the bounds of any town, or within two hundred yards of any public road of the first or second class within the state, such person or persons so offending shall be subject to a fine of ten dollars each[.]Item type:Item, 1836 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 100(1825)Arms, 1825—Chapter 19, § 1: When any sheriff, coroner, or constable, shall know of his own knowledge, or upon the representation of any person, or if he or they, shall have good reason to suspect, any person of being armed with the intention of committing a riot or affray, or the wounding or killing any person, it shall be the duty of all such officers, immediately to arrest all such persons so suspected, and return them before some justice of the peace, whose duty it shall be, upon proof being made, that there was reasonable ground to suspect such person or persons for being armed, with intent to disturb or commit a breach of the peace, to bind such person or persons in a bond with two or more good and sufficient securities, in a sum of not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, and not exceeding two thousand dollars, conditioned for his or their good behavior and peaceable deportment for the term of twelve months thereafterItem type:Item, 1836 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 325(1836)Felonies, 1829—Chapter 23, § 56: If any person within this state shall fight a duel, or shall deliberately and maliciously challenge, by word or writing, any other person, to fight with sword, pistol, or other deadly weapon, or shall deliberately and maliciously invite another verbally, or by writing, to meet him in this state, or elsewhere, with a view or intent to challenge or fight; or if any person so challenged, shall deliberately and maliciously accept the said challenge, in either case, such person so deliberately and maliciously giving or receiving, or sending any such challenge, and being convicted thereof, shall be sentenced to imprisonment, at hard labor in the penitentiary, for a term not less than three nor more than ten years: Provided always, that no person who shall be verbally challenged, shall be a competent witness to prove the fact of such verbal challenge, against any person who may be indicted for the same.Item type:Item, 1837-38 Tenn. Pub. Acts 200-01, ch. 137, § 2(1837)An Act to Suppress the Sale and Use of Bowie Knives and Arkansas Tooth Picks in this State: Prohibited the carrying of a concealed Bowie knife, Arkansas tooth pick, or other knife or weapon. Punishable by fine of $200-500 and imprisonment for 3-6 months.Item type:Item, 1825 Tenn. Priv. Acts 306(1825)An Act to Amend an Act Passed at Murfreesboro, October 20, 1821, Incorporating Winchester and Reynoldsburgh, ch. 292 § 3: That said mayor and aldermen may, and shall, have power and authority to make any rules and laws regulating the police of said town and the inhabitants thereof, to restrain and punish drinking, gaming, fighting, breaking the sabbath, shooting and carrying guns, and enact penalties and enforce the same, so that they do not conflict or violate the constitution of this State, and are consistent with the laws of this state.Item type:Item, 1836 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 496(1835)Misdemeanors, 1835—Chapter 58, § 2: Prohibited any "free person" from selling, loaning, or giving any gun, pistol, sword, or dirk to "any slave."Item type:Item, 1836 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 100(1821)Arms, 1821—Chapter 13, § 1: Every person so degrading himself by carrying a dirk, sword cane, Spanish stiletto, belt or pocket pistols, either public or private, shall pay a fine of five dollars for every such offence, which may be recovered by warrant before any justice of the peace, in the name of the county for its use, in which the offence may have been committed; and it shall be the duty of a justice to issue a warrant on the application, on oath, of any person applying; and it shall be the duty of every judge, justice of the peace, sheriff, coroner, and constable within this state, to see that this act shall have its full effect: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall affect any person that may be on a journey to any place out of his county or state.Item type:Item, 1801 Tenn. Pub. Acts 260-261(1801)Ch. 22, § 6: Prohibited any person to ride or go armed to the terror of the people, or privately carry any dirk, large knife, pistol, or any other dangerous weapon. If the violator did not post a surety, the violation would be punished as. "breach of the peace or riot at common law."Item type:Item, 1821 Tenn. Pub. Acts 63(1821)An Act to Amend the Militia Laws of This State, ch. 55, §§ 2-3: § 2. [T]he commissioned and staff officers of the infantry are hereby required to meet at the place of holding their battalion musters at eleven o'clock on the day preceding said muster, armed with a rifle, musket, or shot gun and dressed in the uniform prescribed by law, for the purpose of being trained as at regimental drills, and the commanding or senior officer present shall call, or cause the roll to be called, and make a return of all delinquents to the next regimental or battalion court martial. § 3. That regimental courts martial shall have power to fine delinquents, field or staff officers, and it shall be the duty of the commanding or senior officer present at any regimental, battalion or drill muster, to make a return of all such delinquents to the next regimental or battalion court martial, and they shall have a discretionary power to assess fines or not as they may think proper on delinquents.