This is too bad, as I really do need to see Tennessee to complete my "state accomplit" list

Realistically, it's not as if I had high hopes for any visit to Tennessee. It's not that I was ever going to consider re-loing there, what with banning Maus and electing Marsha Blackburn and all. 

But I would like to scratch it off my list of states visited, as it's one of only four that I'm missing. (The others are Alaska, North Dakota, and Kentucky - and I might be able to count Kentucky, as I did fly in and out of there on a business trip to Cincinnati, so I was actually on the ground. Tennessee I've only been in to change planes in Memphis on a long ago trip to New Orleans.)

And there are Tennessee things I wouldn't mind seeing: Nashville, the Great Smokey Mountains, Graceland.

I just don't know what I'm going to do if the cockamamie legislation passes that will allow anyone with an "enhanced gun permit" to be designated some of the rights of law officers. Which might mean something if those "enhanced" permits really meant something. But, no. One's about as difficult to acquire as a permit saying that your llama is an emotional support animal.

Under Tennessee's gun rules, an adult civilian resident can apply for an enhanced gun permit, which allows for both open and concealed carry, by paying a $100 fee and providing an eight-hour handgun safety course certificate. (Source: ABC News)

There are 686,348 Tennesseeans with active enhanced gun permits - roughly 10% of the population. 

Although the legislation doesn't yet have any hearings scheduled and the assembly version has only one co-sponsor, it's already getting pushback, including from a police union who says it could ultimately lead to more gun violence.

Ya think? 

All we need is to empower more George Zimmermans, more Kyle Rittenhouses. Think of all these idiots, swaggering around cosplaying cops. 

Jonathan Gold, a Michigan-based firearms instructor and member of the non-profit Giffords Gun Owners for Safety, told ABC News the bill would encourage more vigilantism that would ultimately lead to more harm.

Ya think?

"I don't understand our regression to the old West, because this is what it feels like," he told ABC News. "I've studied the old West, and I don't think anyone wants to go back to the murder rate of Tombstone."

I've watched plenty of cowboy shows during my time, and, while we have terrible murder-by-gun rates in this country at present, I'm pretty sure they were worse back in the good old days, when the Cartwrights, Marshall Dillon, and Wyatt Earp were gunning down bad guys right and left - while only suffering an occasional "flesh wound," that they recovered from in minutes. ("He just winged me.") And where the sheriff was always cobbling together a posse of whoever was hanging around town with a six-shooter on his hip, handing out badges and swearing in Tom, Dick, and Harry to ride out and shoot to kill them some outlaws. 

Gee, what can go wrong if over half a million more gun owners think they're cops? Even police officers, who presumably have more than eight hours training, don't seem to be all that skilled when it comes to guns. I remember a few years ago in NYC there was a workplace shooter who'd gone into the Empire State Building (I think it was) to kill his former boss. While the cops were trying to apprehend him, they managed to shoot and wound 11 passersby. 

If you're wondering what the "certain circumstances" that would allow the average "enhanced" permit holder to play cop:

State Sen. Joey Hensley, who introduced the state Senate version of the bill, told ABC News that the goal of the bill was to allow enhanced gun permit carriers to carry their weapons into locations where off-duty law enforcement enter, such as a store or restaurant that prohibits guns inside their business. Hensley said the bill would not allow enhanced permit holders to bring their weapons into courts or schools.

Not that anything seems to stop someone from bringing a weapon into schools. I guess now folks will have the okay to shoot up a stray copy of Maus if they come across it. 

"This is trying to open it up so that people who go to the extreme to get this extra permit can have the right to defend themselves in more places," the senator told ABC News Thursday.

Although Hensley pooh-poohs the idea that his bill is "meant to make civilians law enforcement members," actual law enforcment members aren't having any:

The state's largest police union, however, told ABC news that it is "adamantly opposed to this bill in its current form."

Because we all know that, once Joe Blow  - make that Pecos Bill - can carry in spaces where only law enforcement was previously allowed to carry, there are plenty of Joe Blows - make that Pecos Bills - who are going to start fantasizing that they're carrying a virtual badge.

After all, the mythology is that 'the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.'

Paul Kemp, the co-founder of the grassroots group Gun Owners for Responsible Gun Ownership, told ABC News he believes the Tennessee legislation is part of a growing trend around the country that is encouraging legal vigilantism.

Kemp said the bill's current lack of details would likely lead to confusion among civilians and law enforcement that could lead to more violence and legal headaches.

"I would find it difficult for law enforcement to distinguish between a civilian with an enhanced gun permit and a perpetrator or person they want to subdue," Kemp said.

Exactly!

I think if this bill passes, I'll have to take a pass on Tennessee. I'd hate to be chowing down on some BBQ near the Ryman Auditorium when some yahoos decide to replay shootout in the O.K. Corral.