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A new Tennessee Attorney General's opinion could potentially cast doubt on Alcoa and Maryville's ability to prohibit people with handgun permits to carry their weapons in city parks, but it is unclear if it will affect the cities.

A recently passed state law allows people with handgun carry permits to take them into public parks, natural areas, historic parks, nature trails, campgrounds, forest greenways, waterways or other similar public lands, but local governments can prohibit possession in these areas by "opting out."

In the opinion, dated Tuesday, Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr. wrote:

"To prohibit handgun carry permit holders from bringing firearms into public parks, which are jointly operated by two or more municipalities or counties, the legislative body for each municipality or county must separately adopt by majority vote a resolution prohibiting such conduct in the jointly operated parks."

The Maryville City Council on Aug. 3 became the first governmental body in Blount County to opt out of the law. The Alcoa City Council voted to opt out on Aug. 11; However, the Blount County Commission on Sept. 8 nixed consideration of opting out of the law.

Therein lies a potential problem for the cities because all Blount County parks are overseen by the Parks and Recreation Commission, which is jointly funded by Blount County, Alcoa and Maryville,

The opinion seemed to catch Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson by surprise.

"The bottom line is I know nothing about where this stems from or whether the presumptions they have in here are correct about our parks and rec agreement," he said. "I'm going to have to pull this out and do some research on it."

Pam Arnett, public information officer for Maryville, said the ban is already in effect in Maryville and that separate entities actually operate their own parks.

"It's just because we have one director," she said. "... We all own and operate our own parks."

County Commission Chairman Steve Samples said he had not known the opinion had been requested. Whether the county would consider the matter again, given the opinion, is an open question.

"Of course, any commissioner has the right to bring the issue up before the agenda committee again," Samples said. "Would it change the outcome based on this most recent attorney general's opinion? I don't really know. I think this is going to be a question for the cities' attorneys and for the Parks and Recreation Commission to address. The issue is more cloudy than it's ever been at this point."