On April 15, the Tennessee Assembly passed SB1360/HB073, strengthening legal protections for Tennessee-based members of the firearms industry and creating a state-level analog of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
The bill, first introduced on February 4, 2025, is backed by gun rights group, Gun Owners of America (GOA). Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of GOA, issued the following statement:
Tennessee just made itself one of the most pro-gun states in America. With this law, radical anti-gun groups can no longer weaponize courts in California or New York to attack the Second Amendment industry in Tennessee. This is exactly the kind of bold leadership our movement needs to see across the country.
According to a GOA press release, the bill strengthens the state’s 2023 PLCAA law in multiple ways:
- Expands legal protections to include additional industry players, including private sellers, suppressor manufacturers, and magazine producers.
- Prohibits Tennessee courts from recognizing or enforcing out-of-state or foreign court judgments that conflict with Tennessee’s pro-Second Amendment public policy.
- Penalizes bad-faith litigation by imposing triple damages on out-of-state plaintiffs and their attorneys who attempt to enforce hostile judgments in Tennessee courts–an unprecedented safeguard for gun rights advocates and businesses.
Many well-known firearms manufacturers have already found Tennessee to be a Second Amendment-friendly business state, with Beretta relocating from Maryland to Gallatin, in 2014, and Smith & Wesson announcing in September, 2021 that it would relocate its headquarters and significant operations from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Maryville, Tennessee. In May 2021, Troy Industries announced it would relocate its headquarters and manufacturing operations from West Springfield, Massachusetts, to Clarksville, Tennessee. The popular rifle manufacturer, Barrett, has a long-standing presence in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for many years.
GOA urges other pro-Second Amendment states to follow Tennessee’s lead by adopting similar legislation that shields their local gun industries from ideologically driven legal assaults. Importantly, the bill places limitations on “public nuisance” claims against firearms manufacturers.
Read about New Jersey’s abuses of so-called “public nuisance” law against the firearms industry.
Some states have co-opted this catch-all to bring frivolous lawsuits, such as New Jersey, which sued Glock in 2022 under its public nuisance law. (A federal judge recently ruled that NSSF can continue their lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s enforcement actions against Glock.)
