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Lawmakers predict passage for guns-in-trunks measure

By Nathan Baker

State lawmakers said this week that a bill allowing handgun carry permit holders to keep firearms in their vehicles in public and private parking lots will likely be introduced early in the upcoming legislative session and could be passed into law soon after.
At a luncheon Monday attended by state representatives and higher education officials, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, said he plans to introduce the bill, which would effectively bar employers and property owners, including college universities and schools, from prohibiting those with legal permits from keeping guns locked in their personal vehicles.
A similar bill was postponed last year by the House Judiciary Committee before it reached the full floor for a vote, but local representatives expressed hope that this year the proposal will be approved.
“It will come back up this year, I’m sure it will,” District 4 Rep. Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, said Thursday. “I basically plan to support it.”