It's not the law-abiding gun owner who Ron Wolf worries about. It's the law-abiding gun owner who's had one too many.

In a long career as a restaurant and nightclub manager, Wolf has seen what a few drinks can do. He's concerned that Georgia is considering a volatile mix — allowing people carrying guns to enter restaurants serving alcohol.

"Even good people have impaired judgment under the influence of alcohol," said Wolf, executive director of the Georgia Restaurant Association. "It's one thing for them to pick up a glass, and hurl it across the room. It's another if they have a gun in their hand."

Wolf and his organization, which represents 3,000 restaurants, have a keen interest in an ongoing debate: In what public areas should gun owners be allowed to carry weapons? And whose rights are more important, people with a permit to carry weapons, or the people who don't want to be near firearms?

Several Georgia cities and counties, pressed by a court case that has successfully challenged local restrictions, recently have started abandoning long-standing bans on guns in public parks.

Meanwhile, although the legislation appears to be stuck, state lawmakers have considered rules that would allow people to take guns into a range of public spaces, including churches, restaurants that serve alcohol, and on public transportation.

In December, a lawsuit filed by the gun rights advocacy group, GeorgiaCarry.Org, successfully challenged an ordinance in Coweta County, preventing people from carrying guns in county parks. The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled the county's ordinance had inappropriately trumped state authority to regulate firearms.

Following the ruling, Sandy Springs and Roswell this month dropped their restrictions on guns in parks. They were among the local governments whose restrictions were challenged. Cities and counties can regulate the discharge of weapons, but they can't ban them, said Ed Stone, president of the 1,000-member GeorgiaCarry. "Many of these cities and counties had regulations that just blatantly violated state law," he said.

In Atlanta, home to 185-acre Piedmont Park, a 30-year-old ordinance banning guns in parks remains in place. The city has 348 parks covering some 3,400 acres, and has no desire to drop its gun ban, said City Attorney Elizabeth Chandler.

"It's a safety issue. We disagree with the concept of allowing people to take guns into the parks," Chandler said.

Stone responded: "There are probably people with guns in Piedmont Park now. If someone is going to go into a park and commit murder, they're not going to be deterred by a city ordinance that says you cannot bring a gun in here."

Legislation filed last week by state Rep. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta) would give local cities and counties the authority to regulate firearms in any city park or recreation area. But in a Republican-controlled legislature, the Democratic-sponsored bill faces long odds of passage.

This session, the Legislature has considered legislation that would expand where gun owners could take their weapons, although the result appears to have furthered disagreement.

The Georgia House approved a bill this month allowing people with permits for guns to take them into restaurants, on public transit buses and trains, and to churches, state parks and historic sites. Guns still would be banned from restaurants and bars that derive most of their sales from alcohol, government offices, and college and professional sports events.

The Senate approved a different version, allowing some gun owners to take their weapons in their cars to work, while giving property owners the right to ban the weapons from parking areas.

No single view has been endorsed by both chambers, and the Senate, when asked to approve the House additions, dispatched them instead to a conference committee. Its president later questioned the logic of allowing guns into places such as churches. The conference committee, which would hammer out the differences, hasn't met.

Despite that, advocates for the changes say they remain optimistic.

The legislation recognizes that licensed gun owners have a right to protect themselves in public, Stone said. Restaurants, churches and other property owners could still prevent people from taking guns on their sites, he said, but the act would be decriminalized.

State Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica), sponsor of the legislation, sees new rules as helpful — evening out inconsistencies in what is now a patchwork quilt of places where people can't take their guns. "Gun-free zones are a criminal's best friends," said Bearden, a former police officer.

Critics remain worried.

Georgians for Gun Safety views the bills as dangerous. "There's nothing in it that says the person carrying it in the church, or the park, or the restaurant, has any proficiency with it," said director Alice Johnson. "What's more likely is they will hurt someone, because they can't shoot straight."

Other proponents of gun control say armed civilians aren't the solution.

Michael Bishop, a writer who lives in Pine Mountain, says poor gun control laws in Virginia contributed to the death of his son, Jamie, a German teacher who was among 32 people killed in the April 2007 Virginia Tech campus shootings.

"The thing that disturbs me is all of this is moving toward a situation where more and more people will feel the need or, quote, 'value' of carrying a gun," Bishop said. "The more guns that are around, the more likely they are to be used."