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Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1323

Commission of certain offenses while wearing a body vest

Acts 1997, ch. 321, § 1; 2012, ch. 848, § 23.

(1) A person commits an offense who knowingly wears a body vest, when acting either alone or with one (1) or more other persons, while committing: Any felony whose statutory elements involve the use or threat of violence to a human being;

(2) Any burglary, car-jacking, theft of a motor vehicle, or arson; or

(3) Any felony offense involving a controlled substance or controlled substance analogue.

(4) For purposes of this section, a “body vest” means a bullet-resistant soft armor providing, as a minimum standard, the level of protection known as threat level I which shall mean at least seven (7) layers of bullet-resistant material providing protection from three (3) shots of one hundred fifty-eight-grain lead ammunition fired from a.38 caliber handgun at a velocity of eight hundred fifty feet (850') per second.

(5) The unlawful wearing of a body vest is a Class E felony.

(6) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the possession of a body vest for lawful purposes.

(7) Any sentence imposed under this section shall run consecutively to any other sentence imposed for the conviction of the underlying offense.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.