Posted: 1/5/2026 4:15:52 PM EDT
[Last Edit: gotigers][Edited]
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A friend at work told me private gun sales in TN must have a background check.
Can a gun be sold private without a background check in TN? Have I been under a rock? edit: For a single sale, non-business. |
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Originally Posted By bodybagger:
Your friend is mistaken or believing some BS a gunshop told him. I mentioned, he was probably thinking of the gun show garbage from a few years ago. The Memphis gun shows, quit letting private sales take place on their property. |
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Originally Posted By gotigers: I didn't think i was that buried under the rock. I mentioned, he was probably thinking of the gun show garbage from a few years ago. The Memphis gun shows, quit letting private sales take place on their property. Maybe so |
I think one of the major problems with America today is not enough families sit down to a big plate of squirrels momma just fried up.
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Originally Posted By gotigers: I didn't think i was that buried under the rock. I mentioned, he was probably thinking of the gun show garbage from a few years ago. The Memphis gun shows, quit letting private sales take place on their property. Originally Posted By gotigers: Originally Posted By bodybagger: Your friend is mistaken or believing some BS a gunshop told him. I didn't think i was that buried under the rock. I mentioned, he was probably thinking of the gun show garbage from a few years ago. The Memphis gun shows, quit letting private sales take place on their property. Background checks on private sales was one of the issues that Voices for a Safer Tennessee made their key points for 'gun reform', after the Covenant shooting. They also have done stuff like purchase lists of names who had left comments on the state website and added them to their members list to rapidly inflate the claimed size of their group (they actually went from an initial group of 30 to 35 people willing to volunteer to act like lobbyists at the state legislature, to just 2 or 3 women willing to keep doing it) and brag about how many other states their monetary donations have been coming from, so it wouldn't be shocking if they (or a similar group) have been spreading claims that it is already illegal to do a private sale without a background check. Convincing people that something is illegal, in an attempt to make it easier to pass a bill to make it illegal, isn't exactly a new idea among the gun control crowd. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
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Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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TN, USA
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Over 25 years ago, private sales did require a background check by the local sheriff. There was, IIRC, a 10 or 15 day waiting period or approval, whichever occurred first. Most sheriffs did not respond, so the buyer had to wait. To the extent that law was even followed, it was repealed. |
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Originally Posted By JWagnr: Over 25 years ago, private sales did require a background check by the local sheriff. There was, IIRC, a 10 or 15 day waiting period or approval, whichever occurred first. Most sheriffs did not respond, so the buyer had to wait. To the extent that law was even followed, it was repealed. There was a TN state law requiring notifying local law enforcement that a handgun had been sold in a private sale and who it had been sold to, but that law did not require waiting for an answer from local law enforcement, just a requirement to notify. It was repealed after the state legislature did a review of its effectiveness and could not find a single example of anyone ever having complied with it. Best I can remember, it was repealed in the late 1990s. WSMV did a story on the repeal, with a gun control advocate ranting about how the state had just removed an important tool for police, but they didn't have anyone presenting the other side of the issue or even mentioning why the decision was made to repeal it. I sent an email to their news director, pointing out that they were only showing one side of the story and that if they asked for an explanation from the legislature, they would find a completely different story. The next night, they aired a follow up report that explained that it was a law that had never been used, but that was back in the day when they had reporters who would do things like go to Al Gore's hometown rally for his presidential campaign, point out the chartered buses that had brought the people who were attending the rally, ask those people why they came from other states to attend the rally, then went looking for the actual locals to see if anybody in the town would actually say they supported Al Gore for president (they found 5 or 6 locals who were willing to say they wanted to see Gore win, but those people also said "it's just too bad that he's going to lose"). Tennessee also used to have a state law requiring licensed dealers to get thumbprints from the buyer. That law was also repealed after the state legislature did a review of its effectiveness. They could only find one instance of law enforcement asking for the thumbprints, and in that one case, the thumbprints were too smudged to be useful in their investigation, so that law was determined to be a complete waste of time and money (the cost of the thumbprint kits). |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Originally Posted By JWagnr: Over 25 years ago, private sales did require a background check by the local sheriff. There was, IIRC, a 10 or 15 day waiting period or approval, whichever occurred first. Most sheriffs did not respond, so the buyer had to wait. To the extent that law was even followed, it was repealed. No it didn't. Beat by JPN |
I think one of the major problems with America today is not enough families sit down to a big plate of squirrels momma just fried up.
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Originally Posted By JWagnr: Over 25 years ago, private sales did require a background check by the local sheriff. There was, IIRC, a 10 or 15 day waiting period or approval, whichever occurred first. Most sheriffs did not respond, so the buyer had to wait. To the extent that law was even followed, it was repealed. I’ve been selling guns privately since the mid 80’s and I do not recall that ever being a law here in TN. This was both long guns and handguns. Maybe I was just unaware of it, but I never was hassled about it back then. Lots of guns I sold in a local sales paper called Bargain Mart where all ads were public and included your phone number. It was never an issue. ETA: The only 15 day waiting period back in the day regarded handguns bought from a dealer, not a private sale. The only way around that was if you were at a gun show and there was someone there to call in an instant check, usually an off duty LEO. Other than that you waited the 15 days and this was for handguns only. Long guns were exempt. |
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Originally Posted By rebel_rifle: ETA: The only 15 day waiting period back in the day regarded handguns bought from a dealer, not a private sale. The only way around that was if you were at a gun show and there was someone there to call in an instant check, usually an off duty LEO. Other than that you waited the 15 days and this was for handguns only. Long guns were exempt. As I recall, the state law allowed that much time for the background check on the handgun purchase to be done but didn't require it as a set waiting period. End result was the wait depended on what county you were in (and in some cases, who you knew, from what I heard). If the handgun purchase was from a licensed dealer in Davidson County, it was going to be a two week wait, because MNPD policy was that no matter how long it took to do the background check, it was going to take two weeks to do the background check. Across the county line in Rutherford County, it was 3 days for the background check on a handgun purchase from a licensed dealer, but I was told that if you were owed a favor by certain people or were friends with the right people, they'd get the background check done within a couple hours. Same state law, but policies on how to comply with that law varied from county to county, because of how much time the state allowed for the county to do the background check. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
|
Originally Posted By JPN: As I recall, the state law allowed that much time for the background check on the handgun purchase to be done but didn't require it as a set waiting period. End result was the wait depended on what county you were in (and in some cases, who you knew, from what I heard). If the handgun purchase was from a licensed dealer in Davidson County, it was going to be a two week wait, because MNPD policy was that no matter how long it took to do the background check, it was going to take two weeks to do the background check. Across the county line in Rutherford County, it was 3 days for the background check on a handgun purchase from a licensed dealer, but I was told that if you were owed a favor by certain people or were friends with the right people, they'd get the background check done within a couple hours. Same state law, but policies on how to comply with that law varied from county to county, because of how much time the state allowed for the county to do the background check. In small towns it could be done the same day. Often it didn't matter to me as I bought most of mine on layaway at the local shop I wish was still open. |
I think one of the major problems with America today is not enough families sit down to a big plate of squirrels momma just fried up.
| As I recall, in Knoxville, most dealers would play it safe and go the full 15 *business* day waiting time. This really meant 3 weeks which was ridiculous. Unless you went to the gunshow, buying from most dealers was a PITA. This is why private sales were so popular for that matter alone. |