2023 Tennessee Code › Title 39 - CRIMINAL OFFENSES (§§ 39-1-101 — 39-17-1812) › Chapter 17 - OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE (§§ 39-17-101 — 39-17-1812) › Part 13 - WEAPONS (§§ 39-17-NEW — 39-17-1366) › Section 39-17-1301 - Part definitions

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Adjudication as a mental defective or adjudicated as a mental defective" means:
(A)
A determination by a court in this state that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, mental illness, incompetency, condition or disease:
(i)
Is a danger to such person or to others; or
(ii)
Lacks the ability to contract or manage such person's own affairs due to mental defect;
(B)
A finding of insanity or that a person is incompetent to stand trial by a court in a criminal proceeding; or
(C)
A finding that a person is incompetent to stand trial or is found not guilty by reason of insanity pursuant to Article 50a and 76b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (
10 U.S.C. §§ 850a
and
876b
respectively);
(2)
"Club" means any instrument that is specially designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with the instrument;
(3)
"Crime of violence" includes any degree of murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated rape, rape, rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, aggravated sexual battery, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery, burglary, aggravated burglary, especially aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated kidnapping, carjacking, trafficking for commercial sex act, especially aggravated sexual exploitation, felony child abuse, and aggravated child abuse;
(4)
(A)
"Explosive weapon" means any explosive, incendiary or poisonous gas:
(i)
Bomb;
(ii)
Grenade;
(iii)
Rocket;
(iv)
Mine; or
(v)
Shell, missile or projectile that is designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury, death or substantial property damage;
(B)
"Explosive weapon" also means:
(i)
Any breakable container which contains a flammable liquid with a flashpoint of one hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit (150° F) or less and has a wick or similar device capable of being ignited, other than a device which is commercially manufactured primarily for purposes of illumination; or
(ii)
Any sealed device containing dry ice or other chemically reactive substances for the purposes of causing an explosion by a chemical reaction;
(5)
"Hoax device" means any device that reasonably appears to be or is purported to be an explosive or incendiary device and is intended to cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or a volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies;
(6)
"Immediate vicinity" refers to the area within the person's immediate control within which the person has ready access to the ammunition;
(7)
"Judicial commitment to a mental institution" means a judicially ordered involuntary admission to a private or state hospital or treatment resource in proceedings conducted pursuant to title 33, chapter 6 or 7;
(8)
"Knife" means any bladed hand instrument that is capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by cutting or stabbing a person with the instrument;
(9)
"Knuckles" means any instrument that consists of finger rings or guards made of a hard substance and that is designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with a fist enclosed in the knuckles;
(10)
"Machine gun" means any firearm that is capable of shooting more than two (2) shots automatically, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger;
(11)
"Mental institution" means a mental health facility, mental hospital, sanitarium, psychiatric facility and any other facility that provides diagnoses by a licensed professional of an intellectual disability or mental illness, including, but not limited to, a psychiatric ward in a general hospital;
(12)
"Restricted firearm ammunition" means any cartridge containing a bullet coated with a plastic substance with other than a lead or lead alloy core or a jacketed bullet with other than a lead or lead alloy core or a cartridge of which the bullet itself is wholly composed of a metal or metal alloy other than lead. "Restricted firearm ammunition" does not include shotgun shells or solid plastic bullets;
(13)
"Rifle" means any firearm designed, made or adapted to be fired from the shoulder and to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed metallic cartridge to fire a projectile through a rifled bore by a single function of the trigger;
(14)
"Short barrel" means a barrel length of less than sixteen inches (16") for a rifle and eighteen inches (18") for a shotgun, or an overall firearm length of less than twenty-six inches (26");
(15)
"Shotgun" means any firearm designed, made or adapted to be fired from the shoulder and to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth-bore barrel either a number of ball shot or a single projectile by a single function of the trigger;
(16)
"Switchblade knife" means any knife that has a blade which opens automatically by:
(A)
Hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle; or
(B)
Operation of gravity or inertia; and
(17)
"Unloaded" means the rifle, shotgun or handgun does not have ammunition in the chamber, cylinder, clip or magazine, and no clip or magazine is in the immediate vicinity of the weapon.
Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 784,s 18, eff. 7/1/2024.
Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 443, s 1, eff. 5/13/2021.
Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 903, s 1, eff. 7/1/2018.
Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 339, s 2, eff. 7/1/2017.
Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 1990, ch. 1029, § 1; 2001, ch. 375, §§ 1, 2; 2009 , ch. 578, § 8; 2010 , ch. 734, § 1.