In 2010, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, Georgia had the seventh-highest number of gun murders in the United States. On average, there is a gun murder every 20 hours in the state, per the Center for American Progress.
Despite what observers see as too many guns in a state with too few controls, Georgia has moved to further weaken existing state gun control laws. On Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal, who is up for re-election this year, signed the Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014.
Dubbed the “guns everywhere bill,” the bill allows concealed carry permit holders to carry their firearms into churches, bars, private residences and unguarded government buildings, unless the building’s owner “opts-out” of allowing guns on his or her premises.
It allows schools to permit specific individuals to carry weapons onto school property and would let a licensed individual carrying a gun to an airport security checkpoint to collect the gun and leave without being arrested or charged with a misdemeanor by police. The bill also strips landlords of their rights to ban firearms on rented property and removes their right to forbid firearms on private property — including private cars. The property owner, instead, is given the right to eject the gun owner from his or her property upon noticing the firearm, preventing the firearm’s owner from being charged with trespassing for violating previously-stated or posted gun restrictions.
The legislation also strengthens Georgia’s “Stand Your Ground” law by offering immunity to anyone that uses deadly force in self-defense or in defense of others or property — even if the person using the gun is not legally eligible to do so. The new law also bans police from stopping an individual simply to ascertain if that person has a valid carry license immediately available, weakens the conviction ban on receiving a carry license to a finding of guilt alone, strikes down the fingerprinting requirement for license renewals, and permits private gun sellers to administer the fingerprint screen.
Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun control group founded by former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, called this bill “the most extreme gun bill in America.” It was joined in aggressively opposing the bill by other gun control organizations, such as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Despite the opposition, the bill passed with little opposition from the state’s Democrats, as it’s an election year in gun-friendly Georgia.
With Atlanta having one of the nation’s highest homicide rates, however, police have moved to call this legislation reckless. “Police officers do not want more people carrying guns on the street,” said Frank Rotondo, the executive director of the Georgia Associations of Chief of Police, “particularly police officers in inner city areas.”
With the legislation expanding “Stand Your Ground” and denying police the right to make Terry stops to check the status of gun holder’s legal right to carry, the bill effectively puts police in a reactive posture to an increasingly gun-friendly situation.
The bill’s passing came at the same time as a new push by the congressional Republicans to block any calls from the president to fund firearm violence research through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With no current funding and with many Republicans in Congress afraid of the possibility of a National Rifle Association-backed primary challenge, many Republicans that had previously supported firearm violence research have since changed their stance.
“The President’s request to fund propaganda for his gun-grabbing initiatives though the CDC will not be included in the FY2015 appropriations bill,” said Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who publicly endorsed the idea of CDC research into firearm use after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Kingston is currently facing a multi-candidate primary challenge.