Changes in gun legislation in Arizona and Tennessee comes despite bloody rampages in recent months.

    New York - Up to 375,000 registered gun owners in Arizona and Tennessee were today given the right to carry concealed guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, in the latest example of loosening gun laws in a country already renowned for its lax approach to firearms.

    The change of the two states' gun laws marks a trend across the US towards increased rights for gun owners despite a spate of bloody rampages in recent months that have seen scores of Americans die. Advocates of the second amendment's right to bear arms argue that in the wake such shooting sprees, citizens should be able to defend themselves by carrying guns in public places.

    But opponents say this is the logic of the mad house. Groups calling for greater regulation of gun ownership are opposing a move at the federal level to extend the right to carry concealed weapons to all 50 states.

    Today, Tennessee granted its 250,000 citizens with gun licences the right to carry handguns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Restaurant owners made a last-minute attempt to block the change, saying it was bad for business, but their appeal was rejected by the courts.

    Randy Rayburn, one of the restaurant owner plaintiffs, told a local TV network: "I'm not worried about the 99% of gun owners who are permit holders. I'm worried about the 1 or 2% of would-be Dirty Harrys who are going to carry out their attempts at vigilante justice."

    The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed a similar rule change yesterday allowing the 125,000 people in possession of a permit to carry concealed weapons to bring their guns into bars and restaurants.

    At the federal level, a bill currently before the Senate would dramatically reduce gun controls at state level by extending the right of anyone with a local permit to carry a concealed weapon in public to do so anywhere in the 50 states. Opponents say that would diminish controls to the lowest common denominator.

    "This is ridiculously stupid and a horrible idea. It's bad public policy though as we all know good public policy has little to do with America's gun laws," said Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

    The campaign points out that this year alone there have been three mass shootings carried out by men with licences to carry concealed guns. In February, Frank Garcia killed four people "execution-style" in upstate New York; in March, Michael McLendon killed 11 people before committing suicide in Alabama; and in April, Richard Poplawski ambushed four police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing three.

    The only area in which calls for greater rights for gun owners are being rebuffed at local level is the right to carry concealed weapons on university campuses.

    In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre in which 32 people were killed on the campus in April 2007, the National Rifle Association has tried in several states to pass laws allowing students to carry loaded guns into classrooms.

    Such was the public revulsion over the massacre, however, that all attempts have so far failed.