The gun rights group suing Atlanta and its airport over restrictions on firearms in the terminal asked a federal judge Tuesday for a temporary order stopping officials from arresting anyone caught with a weapon.

GeorgiaCarry.org filed a federal lawsuit July 1, the day a new gun law took effect in Georgia, when airport officials threatened to arrest a state legislator who had announced he planned to bring a handgun to the airport when he went there to pick up visitors. On July 1, Georgia law changed to allow permitted guns in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on mass transit. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta said guns in the airport would violate another state law that bans firearms at "public gatherings," and said they would have police arrest anyone bringing a firearm to the airport.

In the request for a temporary restraining order, attorney John Monroe said state Rep. Tim Bearden's Fourth Amendment protection from illegal searches and seizures would be violated if he were arrested for exercising his Second Amendment right to carry a gun inside nonsecured areas of the airport.

The motion for a temporary restraining order said Bearden, a Villa Rica Republican, would be harmed if the airport carried out its threat to arrest him while the airport would not suffer harm waiting until there is a decision on the suit.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob set a hearing for July 18.