Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11-611 (2026)

• (a) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
  • (1) "Business" means a commercial enterprise or establishment owned by a person as all or part of the person's livelihood or is under the owner's control or who is an employee or agent of the owner with responsibility for protecting persons and property and shall include the interior and exterior premises of the business;
  • (2) "Category I nuclear facility" means a facility that possesses a formula quantity of strategic special nuclear material, as defined and licensed by the United States nuclear regulatory commission, and that must comply with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 73 ;
  • (3) "Curtilage" means the area surrounding a dwelling that is necessary, convenient and habitually used for family purposes and for those activities associated with the sanctity of a person's home;
  • (4) "Deadly force" means the use of force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury;
  • (5) "Dwelling" means a building or conveyance of any kind, including any attached porch, whether the building or conveyance is temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile, that has a roof over it, including a tent, and is designed for or capable of use by people;
  • (6) "Nuclear power reactor facility" means a reactor designed to produce heat for electric generation, for producing radiation or fissionable materials, or for reactor component testing, and does not include a reactor used for research purposes;
  • (7) "Nuclear security officer" means a person who meets the requirements of 10 CFR Part 73, Appendix B, who is an employee or an employee of a contractor of the owner of a category I nuclear facility or nuclear power reactor facility, and who has been appointed or designated by the owner of a category I nuclear facility or nuclear power reactor facility to provide security for the facility;
  • (8) "Residence" means a dwelling in which a person resides, either temporarily or permanently, or is visiting as an invited guest, or any dwelling, building or other appurtenance within the curtilage of the residence; and
  • (9) "Vehicle" means any motorized vehicle that is self-propelled and designed for use on public highways to transport people or property.

• (b)
  • (1) Notwithstanding § 39-17-1322, a person who is not engaged in conduct that would constitute a felony or Class A misdemeanor and is in a place where the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat before threatening or using force against another person when and to the degree the person reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force.
  • (2) Notwithstanding § 39-17-1322, a person who is not engaged in conduct that would constitute a felony or Class A misdemeanor and is in a place where the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat before threatening or using force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury, if:
    • (A) The person has a reasonable belief that there is an imminent danger of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse;
    • (B) The danger creating the belief of imminent death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse is real, or honestly believed to be real at the time; and
    • (C) The belief of danger is founded upon reasonable grounds.
  • (3) For purposes of this subsection (b), a person is not engaged in conduct that would constitute a felony or Class A misdemeanor or in a place where the person does not have a right to be if the person is engaged in the activity or in the place due to the person's status as a victim of human trafficking. The person must prove the person's status as a victim of human trafficking by clear and convincing evidence. The person may provide clear and convincing evidence of the person's status as a victim of human trafficking through testimony.

• (c) Any person using force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury within a residence, business, dwelling or vehicle is presumed to have held a reasonable belief of imminent death or serious bodily injury to self, family, a member of the household or a person visiting as an invited guest, when that force is used against another person, who unlawfully and forcibly enters or has unlawfully and forcibly entered the residence, business, dwelling or vehicle, and the person using defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry occurred.

• (d) The presumption established in subsection (c) shall not apply, if:
  • (1) The person against whom the force is used has the right to be in or is a lawful resident of the dwelling, business, residence, or vehicle, such as an owner, lessee, or titleholder; provided, that the person is not prohibited from entering the dwelling, business, residence, or occupied vehicle by an order of protection, injunction for protection from domestic abuse, or a court order of no contact against that person;
  • (2) The person against whom the force is used is attempting to remove a person or persons who is a child or grandchild of, or is otherwise in the lawful custody or under the lawful guardianship of, the person against whom the defensive force is used;
  • (3)
    • (A) Notwithstanding § 39-17-1322, the person using force is engaged in conduct that would constitute a felony or Class A misdemeanor or is using the dwelling, business, residence, or occupied vehicle to further an unlawful activity;
    • (B) For purposes of subdivision (d)(3)(A), a person is not engaged in conduct that would constitute a felony or Class A misdemeanor or using a dwelling, business, residence, or occupied vehicle to further unlawful activity if the person is engaged in the activity or using the dwelling, business, residence, or occupied vehicle due to the person's status as a victim of human trafficking. The person must prove the person's status as a victim of human trafficking by clear and convincing evidence. The person may provide clear and convincing evidence of the person's status as a victim of human trafficking through testimony; or
  • (4) The person against whom force is used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in § 39-11-106, who enters or attempts to enter a dwelling, business, residence, or vehicle in the performance of the officer's official duties, and the officer identified the officer in accordance with any applicable law, or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person entering or attempting to enter was a law enforcement officer.

• (e) The threat or use of force against another is not justified:
  • (1) If the person using force consented to the exact force used or attempted by the other individual;
  • (2) If the person using force provoked the other individual's use or attempted use of unlawful force, unless:
    • (A) The person using force abandons the encounter or clearly communicates to the other the intent to do so; and
    • (B) The other person nevertheless continues or attempts to use unlawful force against the person; or
  • (3) To resist a halt at a roadblock, arrest, search, or stop and frisk that the person using force knows is being made by a law enforcement officer, unless:
    • (A) The law enforcement officer uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest, search, stop and frisk, or halt; and
    • (B) The person using force reasonably believes that the force is immediately necessary to protect against the law enforcement officer's use or attempted use of greater force than necessary.

• (f) A nuclear security officer is authorized to use deadly force under the following circumstances:
  • (1) Deadly force appears reasonably necessary to prevent or impede an act, or attempted act, of radiological sabotage at a category I nuclear facility or nuclear power reactor facility, including, but not limited to, situations where a person is attempting to, or has, unlawfully or forcefully entered a category I nuclear facility or nuclear power reactor facility, and where adversary tactics are employed to attempt an act of radiological sabotage, such as, but not limited to:
    • (A) Use of firearms or small arms;
    • (B) Use of explosive devices;
    • (C) Use of incendiary devices;
    • (D) Use of vehicle borne improvised explosive devices;
    • (E) Use of water borne improvised explosive devices;
    • (F) Breaching of barriers; and
    • (G) Use of other adversary or terrorist tactics which could be employed to attempt an act of radiological sabotage;
  • (2) Deadly force appears reasonably necessary to protect the nuclear security officer or another person if the nuclear security officer reasonably believes there is an imminent danger of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse;
  • (3) Deadly force appears reasonably necessary to prevent the imminent infliction or threatened infliction of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse or the sabotage of an occupied facility by explosives;
  • (4) Deadly force appears reasonably necessary to prevent the theft, sabotage, or unauthorized control of special nuclear material from a nuclear power reactor facility or of a nuclear weapon or nuclear explosive device or special nuclear material from a category I nuclear facility; or
  • (5) Deadly force reasonably appears to be necessary to apprehend or prevent the escape of a person reasonably believed to:
    • (A) Have committed an offense of the nature specified under this subsection (f); or
    • (B) Be escaping by use of a weapon or explosive or who otherwise poses an imminent danger of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse to nuclear security officers or others unless apprehended without delay.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 115, Secs.s 2, s 3 eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 115, s 1, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 83, Secs.s 4, s 5, s 6, s 7 eff. 4/7/2021.

Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 80, Secs.s 1, s 2, s 3, s 4 eff. 3/31/2017.

Amended by 2016 Tenn. Acts, ch. 701, s 1, s 2, s 3, Sec.s 4, s 5 eff. 4/6/2016.

Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 1990, ch. 1030, § 8; 2007 , ch. 210, § 1; 2008 , ch. 1012, § 1; 2009 , ch. 194, § 2; 2012 , ch. 627, §§ 1, 2.