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, The Revised Laws of the City of Nashville 68 (1850)(1850)An Act to Provide for the Prevention and Extinguishment of Fires within the City of Nashville, § 11.: That if any person or persons shall fire any gun or pistol, cast, throw, or fire any squib, rocket, cracker, or other combustible fire-works within the limits of the corporation, every such person, for every such offence, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars; and if a slave, he, she or they shall receive not less than five, nor more than twenty lashes, any person or persons shall vend, manufacture, give away, deal in or have in his possession any squib, rocket, cracker, powder, or other combustible fire-works within the limits of the corporation of Nashville for the purpose of disposing of the same to minors or slaves, every such person, for every such offence, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars.Item type:Item, The Revised Laws of the City of Nashville 49 (1850)(1850)An Act to Reduce the Several Acts Incorporating the Town of Nashville in one act, and to Amend the Same, § 6: The Mayor and Aldermen shall have power, by ordinance within the city – ]25th. To regulate the storage of gun-powder, tar, pitch, rosin, salt-petre, gun-cotton, and all other combustible material, and the use of lights, candles and stove-pipes in all stables, shops, and other places.Item type:Item, 1858 Tenn. Code 871(1858)§ 4864: "Any person who sells, loans, or gives to any minor a pistol, bowie-knife, dirk, Arkansas tooth-pick, hunter's knife, or like dangerous weapon, except a gun for hunting or weapon for defence in travelling, is guilty of a misdemeanor,"Item type:Item, Louis J. Dupree, A Digest of the Ordinances of the City Council of Memphis 161 (1857)(1857)Ordinances of the City of Memphis, Pistols and Guns, § 1: It shall be unlawful for any person to fire any pistol, gun or other firearm within the limits of this city, unless it be on the occasion of a military parade,Item type:Item, 1871 Tenn. Pub. Acts 108(1858)Elections, 1869-70 ch. 22, § 2: Prohibited for any person from carrying, concealed or openly, any pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, Arkansas Toothpick, or other deadly or dangerous weapon at an election, fair, race course, or other public assembly.Item type:Item, 2 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 125, tit. 12, ch. 9, art. 2, § 4864(1856)Any person who sells, loans, or gives, to any minor a pistol, bowie-knife, dirk, Arkansas tooth-pick, hunter's knife, or like dangerous weapon, except a gun for hunting or weapon for defense in traveling, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars, and be imprisoned in the county jail at the discretion of the court.Item type:Item, 1855-1856 Tenn. Pub. Acts 34(1855)An Act to Amend and Reduce into One, the Acts Relating to the Charter of the Town of Clarkeville, ch. 32, § 2, pt. 20: To provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires; to organize, establish and equip fire companies, hose companies, and hook and ladder companies; to regulate, restrain or prohibit the erection of wooden or combustible buildings in any part of the city; to regulate and to prevent the carrying on of manufactories dangerous in causing or producing fires; to regulate the storage of gun powder, tar, pitch, rosin, saltpetre [sic], gun cotton and all other combustible or explosive material[.]Item type:Item, 1855-56 Tenn. Pub. Acts 92(1856)Ch. 81, § 2: Prohibited the sale or transfer of any pistol, Bowie knife, dirk, Arkansas toothpick, or hunter's knife to a minor. Excepted the transfer of a gun for hunting.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, 2 Tenn. Comp. Stat. 52, tit. 12, ch. 2, art. 5, § 4628 (1852)(1852)If any person assaults and beats another with a cowhide, stick, or whip, having a the time in his possession a pistol or other deadly weapon, with intent to intimidate the person assaulted, and prevent him from defending himself, he shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than ten years.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, 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, 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, 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, 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."