Despite a passionate speech by a Republican asking "What line will we not cross for the NRA?" the Tennessee House sent to the governor a bill that would allow more than 270,000 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits -- plus millions of others from states whose permits are recognized by Tennessee -- to go armed into any business serving alcohol of any kind, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.
An amendment voted down would have banned guns in businesses deriving less than half of their income from food sales and required owners of such places to post gun-ban signs. Lawmakers last year passed a loosely worded bill purporting to allow guns in restaurants serving alcohol but left it to the public to differentiate between them and "bars" with more liquor sales than food -- a distinction that doesn't exist in Tennessee law. It was in effect four months before a judge overturned it as unconstitutionally vague.
