I had a crazy friend ask a crazy question. And I wondered this myself watching the protester in Arizona with a rifle.
Can you open carry a rifle? I know you can have one in your car now (yippee!) with a mag in with no bullet in the chamber. But what about outside the car? walking down the street with one slung over your shoulder?
I dont think a permit matters because its a "handgun" permit.
So can I walk down a street with an AR15 slung over my shoulder as the guy in Arizona? Or is that just Arizona's law?

No, you cannot carry a firearm openly or otherwise without a permit. The permit only covers handguns.



 

i thought that didn't go through????

You thought wrong. It was passed

nm, re read the post

HB0390

Handgun Permits - As enacted, makes it an exception to the criminal offense "unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon" that a person who has a valid handgun carry permit is transporting a rifle or shotgun in or on a privately owned motor vehicle and the weapon does not have ammunition in the chamber; exception will also apply if the rifle or shotgun has ammunition in the chamber, which ammunition was inserted in the chamber for purposes of justifiable self defense.

The default law says something like "it's illegal to carry a firearm with intent to go armed."

The permit stuff makes it legal because there is a law that says something like "a valid handgun carry permit is a legal defense against the charge of carrying a handgun with intend to go armed"

edit: was thinking of another state - see below.

Actually, it creates an exception for permit holders.  It's not a valid defense...but rather, the law doesn't apply to you as long as you have a valid HCP.

David

I need a mount for the USC in the 300.  

It is legal to open carry an unloaded rifle, shotgun or handgun according to Tennessee State law. I have referenced the code below.

TCA 39-17-1307. Unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon. —  
(a)(1)  A person commits an offense who carries with the intent to go armed a firearm, a knife with a blade length exceeding four inches (4"), or a club.


TCA 39-17-1308 Defenses to unlawful possesion or carrying of a weapon.-
(a) It is a defense to the application of 39-17-1307 if the possession or carrying was:
   (1) Of an unloaded rifle, shotgun or handgun not concealed on or about the person and the ammunition for the weapon was not in the immediate vicinity of the person or weapon;

While AG's have written opinions (04-020, 09-118, 95-118) concerning the "opt out" otherwise known as TCA 39-17-1314. However, you may wish to make sure that your Municipality or County doesn't have an ordinance prior to 1986 concerning carrying firearms just to be 100% sure.

It doesn't work very well if it's unloaded.

He didn't ask about ammunition, he asked about carrying a long arm.
Your definitive answer was wrong.
FWIW, I believe the rifle carried by the man in Arizona was unloaded.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=13&t=374140

It had a magazine in it and he had a loaded magazine in his back pocket I can only assume the magazine in the rifle was also loaded.
I did talk to an officer in GA while I was in a coin store buying silver coins. And the GA officer said I can walk around with a rifle slung over my shoulder anywhere I want to. He said I can probably go to more places with a rifle than a pistol because the pistol has more restrictions because it can be concealed. He advised not to do so because you could possibly be promptly shot. That was in GEORGIA. I have yet an officer to ask in TN about it. Any police officers in this forum in TN?

i am from arizona. we moved here a couple years ago. anyway. it is perfectly legal to open carry pistols or rilfes. loaded or not. i used to ride up to j&g sales on my motorcycle to buy rifles. slung them over my back and rode home(about 150miles) sometimes they were loaded sometimes not. never got looked at. even had a state cop behind me for about 20 miles one time(running my plates:) then he passed me up. i would take a rifle and on my bike to the range. slung over my back with loaded mags in all my pockets. not very comfortable. tell you the truth i was very shocked at the ass backward gun laws here. if anything i figured it would be better.....wrong on that and on taxes. not what i thought it would be. still happy to be here though.
                                                             later  jay

According to people with Chris the rifle was unloaded. On the Arizonashooting.com forum on Monday August 17, 2009 at 3:17pm atfsux said, "We presumed that some ACORN nut might get perturbed and try to disarm him and take the gun. So, not trusting that such a person might know how to safely handle an AR, the gun was empty. However, Chris's G-19 was ready to rock, as were all the others in attendance. There were always at least 3 to 7 cops within immediate reach if something went down,...so we felt that for the safety of any idiot attempting to grab it, the item everyone would focus in on should be de-fanged. (But as you can see,...there were spare fangs at the ready.)"