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DEL.ICIO.USSweeping the guns-in-parking-lots language clean
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The conference committee report on H.B. 89, the all-encompassing gun bill, is out — but hasn’t been voted on in either chamber.
Opponents will still have heartburn. It allows those with concealed permits to carry in restaurants and public transport.
But an important part of the bill — the part that started the row in the Senate — has been neatly gutted. This is the section that permits employees to keep firearms parked in company lots.
Here’s the new language:
Nothing in this Code section shall restrict the rights of private property owners or persons in legal control of property through a lease, rental agreement, a contract, or any other agreement to control access to such property. When a private property owner or person in legal control of property through a lease, a rental agreement, a contract, or any other agreement is also an employer, his or her rights as a private property owner or person in legal control of property shall govern.
Now, I approached a National Rifle Association lobbyist about this, and he said he wasn’t bothered by it in the least. The language means nothing, he assured me.
The official NRA spokesman in Washington said this: “The most significant thing about this legislation is that it gives permit holders the right to keep guns in cars parked on any publicly accessible parking lot.”
But to my mind, the bill now says that employers must let employees keep guns in their cars on company land — unless they don’t want to. Very much like the city of Kennesaw gun law, which states that all residents must own a gun — unless they object.
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Comments
By mike123
April 5, 2008 7:48 AM | Link to this
The NRA language offers no protection to most Georgians. If you work at the mall, you are protected. If you work in an office or factory, you are not. That is no different today than it was yesterday.
The NRA gives gun owners a bad rep. in the Legislature fighting for nothing. Hopefully, they go away so real gun law reform can be accomplished.