For the second straight year, the state Senate voted Thursday to override the governor's veto of the guns-in-bars bill. The House, which adopted the bill by a wide margin earlier this session, is expected to override the veto next week.
"On this issue, I respectfully submit to this body that the governor is wrong," Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, said before the Senate's 22-10 vote.
In his veto message, Gov. Phil Bredesen called this year's version "even more expansive and dangerous" than last year's because it lets the state's 300,000 handgun carry permit holders go armed not only into restaurants that happen to serve alcohol but also into any honky-tonk, roadhouse and bar in the state.
But Jackson said, "I haven't gotten a complaint from a single citizen that a permit holder made them feel uncomfortable."
Last year's version sought to exclude bars, but not restaurants that serve alcohol. Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman struck down the law as unconstitutionally vague and impossible to enforce.