I am a retired QRLEO (Qualified Retired Law Enforcement Officer) under H.R.218/L.E.O.S.A. This Federal Law ONLY requires proper retired LEO I.D. and proof of an annual qualification from the state you retired from or the state you live in, by a certified LE instructor (in either state) PERIOD!!!. The (non federally required) road blocks that Tennessee places on retired officers goes soooooo far above and beyond the federal requirements of H.R.218/L.E.O.S.A. It was much easier (and far more reasonable) to pay for round trip airfare, rental car and hotel for me to fly back to the state where I retired from to re-qualify after my move to TN (so sad). Tn. wanted an application to the state (and its associated waiting time), me to apply (and pay) a private state contracted company to do a background check, FBI fingerprint check to be done (again fees paid by me), wait for all this to go through, then I could arrange for a local LE agency (this I understand) to qualify me (I would need to give the local agency the approval from the state to make the appointment). Tn. also requires 8 hrs of retraining if the re-qualification was within 356 days of my last re-qualification, or 40 hours of training if I had gone past my annual re-qualification I am hoping to find a State of Tn. LE Firearms instructor that would put me through the legal/federal required re-qualification course of fire privately (at my expense), so I meet all the federal requirements and can get documentation of the (future) re-qualifications and bypass the non-federally required red tape. When I told the agency instructor where I retired from of the roadblocks in Tn. when I flew in, he shook his head and said “Ill probably see you again next year”. The good part of this was seeing old coworkers. Amazingly, not related to my re-qualifications with H.R.218/L.E.O.S.A., I just needed a Tn. form given to me by the Tn. Division of Drivers Licenses completed by my old chief and $100.00 and Tn. gave me a Lifetime CC Permit.
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