Goin' Down In Georgia - Gun Restrictions Squashed! - Granite Grok

Goin’ Down In Georgia – Gun Restrictions Squashed!

Georgia-Guns Just Peachy! Lawmakers in Georgia ALMOST scored a bullseye by striking down many restrictions on gun use, licensing, concealed carry, and self defense. Both Hose and Senate passed a sweeping reform bill, HB60 by almost 2:1 margins, sending it to Governor Nathan Deal’s desk for almost certain signature.

Here’s the list of changes – but see if you can spot the hidden flaw:

  • Removal of fingerprinting for renewal of Weapons Carry Licenses (WCL).
  • Prohibiting the state from creating and maintaining a database of WCL holders.
  • Creation of an absolute defense for the legal use of deadly force in the face of a violent attack.
  • Removal of the sweeping restrictions on legally carrying a firearm with a WCL in churches and bars, leaving this decision to private property owners.
  • Lowering the age to obtain a concealed WCL for self-defense from 21 to 18 for active duty military, with specific training.
  • Repealing the unnecessary and duplicative state-required license for a firearms dealer, instead requiring only a Federal Firearms License (FFL).
  • Prohibiting a ban on firearms in public housing, ensuring that the right to self-defense should not be infringed based on where one calls home.
  • Codifying the ability to legally carry, with a WCL, in sterile/non-secure areas of airports.
  • Including a provision that would have the state report those persons who have been involuntarily hospitalized or have been adjudicated mentally deficient to the NICS system while also providing an ability for relief through an application process to the court system for the purpose of restoration of rights.
  • Stating that under a declared state of emergency, all law-abiding gun owners will not have their Second Amendment rights restricted or infringed by executive authority through Emergency Powers protection.
  • Strengthening current firearms preemption statutes through further clarification of the regulatory authority of local governments, excluding firearm discharge ordinances.

Way to go, Georgia – making citizens safer and less subject to tracking by the state, and giving criminals more reasons to stay away. But did you notice echoes of NH’s (failed) SB244 in that third paragraph from the bottom?

Why would that bother us here at the Grok? Nobody could object to keeping guns out of the hands of mentally disturbed people, surely?

Quite true – the trouble comes in the reporting to NICS, because, regardless of the fine promises made by such a law to provide a means of redress, NICS is like the sex offender registry – once on it, even if falsely accused and eventually cleared, getting off it is a nightmare. Rick has an excellent analysis here.

H/T Godfather Politics and Townhall.com

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