Metro Pulse/Gamut/Gun Owners

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Those who carry them, shoot them or just keep them around the house are mostly defense-minded people

by Barry Henderson

Any time you're in a group of 65 to 75 adults around Knoxville, odds are one of them is carrying a loaded handgun, legally. It's a statistical probability that holds true unless you're on school, public park or other government property, in an area where gun prohibition is posted, or in an establishment that serves alcohol. Under the law, firearms can't be carried in those places. Anywhere else, someone in the group probably has a pistol concealed in a pocket, a hidden holster or a purse and is entitled to carry it.

The Tennessee Department of Safety has issued 6,123 permits to carry a handgun to residents of Knox County since 1996, when the newest handgun law and regulations went into effect, and well over 5,000 of those permits remain in force.

Untold thousands more pistols are in private possession in the county—some to use in shooting hobbies or for protecting households, and some very probably being carried around illegally.

Knox County is in no way unique in its number of legal carriers of handguns. Statewide, a Department of Safety spokesperson says, the total number of permits issued in the six years under the new law has reached more than 130,000. The Chattanooga/Hamilton County area has a few more handgun carry permits per capita; Nashville/Davidson County somewhat fewer. Hendersonville/Sumner County has a surprisingly high number of permits, while Johnson City/Washington County's is proportionately low. There are nearly 100 or more permits in force in even the least populous of counties.

Handguns are, in the words of one young woman who is serious about her shooting hobby, "part of the culture here in the South." She doesn't carry any of her guns, but she shoots them regularly at indoor and outdoor ranges here and in surrounding counties, and she says the whole idea of having guns available is a ready form of "empowerment" in a society in which—especially since last September 11—people tend to feel vulnerable and powerless against acts of violence.

Indeed, the number of carry-permit applications surged immediately after September 11, according to instructors who are authorized to provide the state-required course in safe handling and firing of pistols for people who wish to obtain such a permit. Though that number has fallen off, there is still a steady stream of people who are seeking instruction in handgun use.

Bob Wiest teaches several courses, including carry-permit classes, at Guncraft Sports, Inc., a firearms sales and indoor pistol range facility on Dutchtown Road in West Knoxville. Wiest says the vast majority of attendees in his handgun-carry classes, about 80 percent, are men, while about 85 percent in his basic handgun familiarity courses are women—most of whom go on to get a carry permit. The cost of the course there is $85, plus tax. Guncraft has hosted nearly 1,000 tests in the last two years alone.

Wiest says he doesn't ask why any of his students want a carry permit, and, unlike some states, Tennessee law does not require a reason. But Wiest says he routinely asks what line of work his students are in, and says recent trends include nurses, real estate sales people and veterinarians. In real estate sales, he says he understands that many of the applicants are concerned about meeting with people they don't know, sometimes at night and in remote areas around vacant properties. Earlier applicants included such professions as jewelers, physicians and an assortment of people who have to carry money from place to place.

"My feeling is that everybody ought to have a handgun," Wiest says, "The criminals already have them, and the police can't be everywhere..." He's a true believer in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for the public's right to keep and bear arms.

Before the new law went into effect, legally carrying a concealed firearm was mostly at the discretion of county sheriffs who issued special officer cards, sometimes based on political considerations and hardly uniform from county to county.

The law now says the applicant "shall" be issued a handgun-carry permit if he or she is 21, a state resident who has not renounced citizenship and who successfully completes an approved handgun-carry course; swears to an affidavit that there are no high crimes, mental illnesses or addictions in the closet; comes to his or her appointment at the Department of Safety license branch with $115 in cash for the privilege; will sign the application in the presence of the examiner; and whose persona and fingerprints pass a local, state and federal law enforcement background check. The approved handgun-carry course has a four-hour classroom session, with a written test and a four-hour range shooting and qualifying component.

"We stress liability and safety," says Red Smith, who teaches the course at Hickory Creek Range off Watt and Everett Roads, just inside Loudon County. "What we try to do is to get the student to use reason, rather than emotion," Smith says about the use of a handgun to fend off a threat of death or bodily harm.

Safety includes more than just following the commandments, such as storing the firearm and ammunition under separate locks and never pointing the weapon at anything you don't want to shoot. It also means knowing how to react when approached by a police officer while you are legally carrying a handgun. Smith says the thing to do is announce, "I have a permit to carry a handgun," with both hands free and in full view of the officer. "If you say, 'I have a gun,' the officer will likely draw," Smith says. For his own protection, the officer will put you through an uncomfortable routine to determine that your handgun is no threat. For the same reason, Smith says, "We advise permitted carriers to carry their handgun concealed, rather than in view."

Today's pistols themselves, Wiest says, are very safe "unless something breaks." When they are functioning properly, most semi-automatic handguns have redundant safety catches and features that prevent discharge when dropped. Revolvers of recent vintage, though less popular than they once were, are inherently safe as well. "Guns are designed by lawyers now, with product liability in their minds," says Robert Loftis, another Guncraft Sports employee.

Like Wiest and most other instructors, Hickory Creek's Smith, a former Marine gunnery sergeant who is now a security officer for the Knox County Health Department, recommends that handgun-carry permit holders obtain prepaid legal services. That provides a lawyer in the event a gun is fired and legal action ensues. Another of the commandments, that the person who pulls the trigger is financially responsible for every bullet discharged, means just that. Some lawyers with lawsuits follow firearms around with all the determination of ambulance chasers.

"Even a home-invasion shooting leaves you open to criminal prosecution or a lawsuit," says Lee Robinson of Maryville, an agent for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., an Oklahoma company licensed to sell legal insurance in Tennessee. He says he secured a $10 per month discount, to $16 a month, tax deductible, from his company specifically for carry permit holders. The fee, or premium, pays for up to 60 hours of attorney's fees the first year and is graduated each year up to five years and a 300-hour maximum. It's the only insurance of any kind available to handgun carriers, and it pays no claims against the shooter. It only pays for an otherwise more costly legal defense against liability suits or criminal accusations.

Angela Campbell, 23 and a recent UT graduate, says her boyfriend, a safety officer at a firing range in Sevier County, got her interested in shooting about four years ago. "I like it as a recreational hobby, like bowling," she says. She fires handguns at ranges, but still prefers rifles for their accuracy and ease of handling. She does not keep a handgun carry permit, though she has taken courses in the tactical uses of handguns in self-defense at Guncraft, where she has a lifetime membership. "I think women are very avid shooters once they get into it," Campbell says.

Knoxville's Volunteer Rifle and Pistol Club conducts periodic handgun-carry courses among its many activities at the John Sevier Hunter Education Center, on federal land on Rifle Range Road in North Knoxville. The center is managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and used by the club as well as the military, on different hours and days.

The property, which has served since 1879 as a military firing range —except for a brief interlude as a prisoner of war camp in World War I—has shotgun, rifle, archery and airgun ranges, is now open to the public on Sunday afternoons. Tommy Whitehead, the TWRA agent in charge of the center, says people who bring their pistols to the range must do so with the weapon and ammunition separate and inaccessible from one another to avoid potential criminal charges. Whitehead says the club, a 72-year-old organization with about 270 current members, provides range marshals to manage both their own events and the shooting opportunities open to the general public.

"We encourage the public to come out and see what we do and shoot with us if they wish," says Bob Flynn, a club member who shares range marshal duties with other members on a rotating basis.

Two recent Sunday shooters who weren't club members were Jeff Dargan, a Knoxville hospital emergency room nurse, and Bill Barber, a telecommunications contractor, who brought their pistols to the range for practice.

Dargan says he started shooting in college, "plinking" with friends. ("Plinking" refers to shooting small-bore weapons at tin cans or similar targets.) He says he stayed interested in firearms and carried a pistol fairly often for purposes of personal defense before the new permit law. He took the handgun-carry course and got his permit, he says, "after September 11."

Barber did the same. He had carried a pistol, a .22 loaded with small pellets known as snake, rat or crow shot, while trekking across country on foot in his job. He says he would often notify law enforcement officials of his handgun and its snake-protection purpose, and they never told him not to carry it. He, too, got his permit after September 11. He says he always liked shooting. "I tried hunting and didn't like that," and settled on range firing as both a hobby and a way to stay familiar with his handgun for safety considerations.

Barber says he and Dargan now get together and fire about 100 to 200 rounds apiece once every couple of months, or more in nice weather.

Cost isn't much of a factor in shooting. Club member and instructor Jay Love says he used to go to NASCAR races, "but they priced me out of it." He started shooting .22 caliber target pistols indoors at bullseyes for something to do in the winter. Even for non-members who may arrive on a Sunday with nothing but a pistol and ammunition, the cost of a couple of hours of range use is minimal. For $4.50 the club provides hearing protectors (required), targets and the supervision of a range marshal. "It's the best deal around," says Love.

Mac Phillips, a Knoxville salesmen of electric power transmission services, is a club member and long-time gun enthusiast who shoots target pistols at metallic silhouettes of game animals as his present hobby. He says, "I enjoy this about as much as anything I've ever done." And his claim rings true. Leaning back on a table in the sun, surveying the range and chatting with fellow shooters, Phillips exhibits the kind of relaxation and camaraderie that seems to follow shooters around the ranges. The range regulars appear to be of a personality type devoted to the notion of weapons and their use as a defensive skill—not an aggressive character among them. And, with ear plugs, a well-staffed and managed range is not a bad place to be on a pretty afternoon.