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DEL.ICIO.USWhy you soon may be allowed to carry concealed at Kennesaw Mountain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday is about to become a very big payday for gun rights advocates.
Here’s the deal:
Two bills will move, not one. H.B. 257, which now permits those with concealed weapons permits to carry in restaurants and on rail and bus systems, is but one chunk.
H.B. 89 will also move. This measure will carry the watered-down, guns-in-parking-lots language that the Senate, National Rifle Association and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce have wrestled with for two sessions, plus other goodies for the NRA.
Right now, chances of passage for both must be rated very good. Opposition is scarce. Joe Fleming, lobbyist for the Georgia chamber, says his group will be focused H.B. 89, to make sure the parking lots language doesn’t change.
Whether restaurant groups, MARTA and other transit systems raise objections — and raise them quickly enough — will determine whether H.B. 257 has tough sledding.
When it leaves a House-Senate conference committee tomorrow, H.B. 89 will be significantly changed. The parking-lot language, stripped out by the House, will be restored.
The language redefining “public gatherings” where firearms remain prohibited has been abandoned. You will not be permitted to carry a concealed weapon into church.
But the bill will:
— Require expedited treatment for concealed weapons permits by the probate court judges who issue them;
— Relax state restrictions on where firearms can be stored in vehicles;
— Make “straw” purchases of firearms illegal — a way of prohibiting lawsuits of the type filed by New York against gun dealers in Georgia, alleging they are sources for weapons that flow into states where buying a gun is much more difficult or time-consuming.
— And it will allow licensed concealed weapons to be carried in state parks and historical sites.
This last part is important, and here’s why:
U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has said his department would suggest new regulations by the end of this month that would amount to the biggest relaxation of gun-toting rules in federal parks in more than a century.
Basically, he said that concealed weapons would be permitted — if the U.S. parks are located in states that permit carrying in their parks. So passage of H.B. 89 would insure that, someday soon, visitors to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park and the federal Chattahoochee River park would also be able to carry concealed.
Comments
By GodHatesTrash
April 3, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this
If guns are outlawed, how will rednecks get women to have sex with them?
You gunnuts are trash.
By Larry
April 3, 2008 5:10 PM | Link to this
Finally some reason in OUR legislature.
You know it’s a good thing when those opposing something can only resort to name calling as in “You gunnuts (sic) are trash”.
By Stephen C
April 3, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
I am pleased to read that people might finally be able to start legally defending themselves in the places they are most vulnerable. U.S. Parks, while a wonderful way to connect with nature, are far away from help. It is sad to see how many out there are still opposed to someone protecting themselves and their family, however. I suppose they would prefer more tragedies like Meredith Emerson.
By Redneck woman
April 3, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this
It usually takes some sweet talk and bbq.
By GodHatesTrash
April 3, 2008 6:06 PM | Link to this
Gun to the head, or rufies.
By Brian Ott
April 3, 2008 7:11 PM | Link to this
Oh how I do love the thoughtful and incisive commentary from you GodHatesTrash.
Hiding behind an internet pseudonym and making Ad Hominem attacks. Now do you actually have a thought or do you need to go ask someone?
By GodHatesTrash
April 3, 2008 8:13 PM | Link to this
You can always get them drunk, or take some lollypops by the grade school, right Brian?
Trash.
By Kurt Martin
April 3, 2008 8:37 PM | Link to this
Parks, either National, State, or City/ County, are places were criminals can and do attack innocent people. They are places with generally very little police presence. In bigger parks in remote areas, odds are good your cellphone won’t get a signal so you can’t dial 911, and the nearest law enforcement officer may be several miles and 20 minutes’ travel time from you.
Citizens with gun carry permits (in Georgia they’re issued by a Judge of the Probate Court, and only following a criminal history and background check. They should be able to carry any place where they may encounter violent criminals and where they could use a gun to defend themselves.
By GodHatesTrash
April 3, 2008 8:56 PM | Link to this
God hates trash.
And God hates gundamnmentalists.
Only the mentally ill think they need a gun to go everywhere.
By Galoco_lee
April 3, 2008 9:09 PM | Link to this
Trash, you are sick. My hats off to the seniors who defend themselves. Blew away one scum bag and apprehended another.
By John Doe
April 3, 2008 9:32 PM | Link to this
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=164013
By John Doe
April 3, 2008 9:33 PM | Link to this
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=164013
By Gunar Sailors
April 4, 2008 3:48 PM | Link to this
I would rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it… Anyone who would rather be carried by six than be judged by twelve for a homicide comitted in self defense is either crazy or just plain not living in this century. Worry about the people who arent getting guns legally, and who arent possessing them legally. They dont care about what house bill gets passed anyway. THINK ABOUT IT!!!!
By Elijah C
April 14, 2008 5:33 PM | Link to this
just ban all non, single shot, magazine-less rifles. and we would all be much safer. People with guns are always looking for a fight or a situation where they could use their weapons.
By MygunNotyours
April 14, 2008 6:30 PM | Link to this
Really. Will you confiscate all of those weapons that people own now? Guns do not kill people, people do. The argument made by folks like Elijah C, never answer the question I asked. Do you anti-gun types really think that some sort of Fed sponsored gun turn in program would work? If you get your way, are you willing to wait to 200 + years for the guns we have floating around now to become functionally obsolete? You guys have no right to take our guns.
By Wackolibhack
April 14, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that the Chinese invented gun powder. Bush loves war. War= Gun powder. Bush loves killing with gun powder. Bush loves guns. Gun are evil. Guns keep the minorities down. Bush hates black people (thanks Kayne West). I hate bush.
By GodHatesTrash
April 15, 2008 7:00 AM | Link to this
Let’s face it - most gun owners are too stupid and too crazy to safely handle firearms.