Three years after legislators passed a guns-in-parks law to allow licensed carriers to bring their handguns into events such as Chattanooga's Riverbend Festival, an amendment to that law has given festival leaders the authority to ban firearms again.
Lt. Austin Garrett said the modified statute took effect in July 2017, just after last year's Riverbend.
"It gives events and government agencies the ability to restrict the carrying of handguns where previously you could carry one in a park, and that kind of thing. The event has to cover several different specific criteria relative to security," the Chattanooga Police Department offier said.
The bill, sponsored by Tennessee Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, grants certain entities the ability to make their own calls about firearms so long as they have "metal detection devices" and mandatory bag checks at each public entrance.
The bill also requires "at least one law enforcement or private security officer who has been adequately trained to conduct inspections of persons entering the property by use of metal detection devices" at entrances.
Garrett said Friends of the Festival, the group that organizes Riverbend, chose to take advantage of the amendment this year with public safety in mind, adding that police officers don't make the rules, but will enforce them.
"Their intent is to make this event safe, same as ours," he said. "We'll do it just like we always have. We adapted to it when they were allowed and we'll do the same thing now."
In the two years that firearms were permitted at Riverbend, there were no shooting incidents, and Garrett estimated police checked anywhere between a dozen and two dozen permit holders every night. However, police did find an abandoned firearm inside the event on the final night last year.
"There was a firearm lying on the ground that was discarded by a person," he said. "We haven't been able to determine if it was a permit holder, but we believe it was someone who pitched it on their way out when they saw they were going to have to interact with [police]."
The festival began Friday and vendors, musicians and staff worked frantically to get ready. Passersby outside one of the main gates in downtown Chattanooga on Friday morning had mixed feelings about the firearm restriction.
"I just don't understand why someone would ever need to bring a firearm into an event like that," said Amy Rogers.
"There are police officers and security guards everywhere, plus there's alcohol being served and you never know what's going to happen in a crowd that size. It seems like you're putting everyone else at risk for no reason."
Robert Menendez said he doesn't carry a firearm, but he supports others' right to do so wherever they see fit.
"If you're trained and licensed, what's the problem?" he said. "People have been allowed to bring in guns for two years now and there haven't been any problems.
"Throwing a fit over this is just people getting mad over a problem that doesn't exist."
Festival leaders will meet in a few weeks to discuss what went well during the event and what didn't, but in the meantime, police ask anyone who is able to do so to avoid parking near the festival grounds and take a shuttle to the location.
Garrett said attendees also should pay attention to officers giving directions in intersections as they're leaving, because police have planned the best routes to get as many people out of downtown as quickly as possible.
"Our job here is customer service in everything we do," he said. "From keeping you safe to helping you get where you need to go, to making your visit to any event in the city, especially Riverbend, as enjoyable as it can be."
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.