Why is there always so much confusion regarding gun laws?

I live in Tennessee, and for years, I have heard people make incorrect, conflicting, and otherwise misleading claims regarding gun laws - specifically as they pertain to handguns.

The current law in Tennessee requires a permit to carry a handgun. The permit covers both open and concealed carry. There have been attempts at relaxing the law to allow for open carry without a permit (at which point only concealed carry would require a permit), including one that is supposed to be up for vote in 2017.

I was listening to a guy in my office this morning claim he could open carry his gun without a permit (information he claimed he got 'from his brother'). How is it that people can be so ignorant of the law (especially considering it only takes ten seconds with google to find correct information on state website, or others like opencarry.org etc.)?