Stone Mountain Park visitors can bring guns to the tourist attraction

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Stone Mountain Park visitors who are qualified to carry guns can now bring their weapons on their visits, according to a lawsuit settlement.

Before the 2008 case was resolved, only those with permits to carry guns could bring their weapons into the park. But they had to tell park police they were armed before coming through the gates.

Now anyone – except felons and those who have been involuntarily committed for mental illness – can have guns inside the park. Those without a carry permit, however, must leave their weapons in their cars, according to John Monroe, an attorney for GeorgiaCarry.org, which brought the lawsuit against the state-owned tourist attraction.

“There’s no place on God’s green earth that’s completely crime free,” Monroe said when asked why a gun might be needed at the park. “You can get mugged as easily at Stone Mountain Park as at the store … or the bank. If people want to carry guns to protect themselves, they should be able to.”

GeorgiaCarry.org’s lawsuit filed in May 2008 challenged a Stone Mountain Park ordinance that prohibited firearms inside the park.

On July 1, 2008, a new state law allowed guns in state parks and other places they had not been allowed before. About six months later, at the end of last year, the Stone Mountain ordinance was tweaked letting those with carry permits bring their guns into the park as long as they first told the park police they were armed.

Monroe said that was still a problem.

“We had some members who tried that and the police would say ‘we don’t know what we’re supposed to do,’ ” Monroe said.

Though the changes brought by settlement are relatively small, gun control advocates say the symbolism is important, especially for people who are determined “to make sure guns are everywhere.

“The folks who are adamantly in favor of that see themselves as substitutes for law enforcement and that’s very dangerous,” said Alice Johnson, founder of Georgians for Gun Safety.

Monroe disagreed with that characterization.

“The people who are in favor of it want to protect themselves and their families and don’t see themselves as a vigilante substitute for law enforcement,” Monroe said.

GeorgiaCarry.org is a grass-roots organization with thousands of members who pay $15 to join.

The group has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against several cities and towns. GeorgiaCarry.org lost its suit to allow guns in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport up to security check points, but it has won all others, including cases against Fulton County and several of its cities and Cobb, Henry, Gwinnett and Cherokee counties.

GeorgiaCarry.org still has two suits pending. One case challenges the practice of MARTA police officers stopping people with guns to ensure they have permits. The other case is against the Fulton County Probate Court, which will only issue permits to Georgia residents.