Debate over gun proposals rages across state

The Newtown school massacre has provoked fiery debates at the federal and state levels on whether to scale back the rights of gun owners.

But in Georgia, the focus isn’t entirely on curtailing gun rights.

Many of the more than two dozen gun bills filed so far in the General Assembly are pushing for expanded access to firearms across the Peach State.

This legislative session, following the shooting of 20 students and six adults in a Connecticut elementary school, the debate has been amplified to the point that both sides have the potential to drown out each other and get nothing done.

“I have a real disposition against legislating to exploit a tragedy,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said last week during a legislative forum hosted by the University of Georgia. “You may see one or two of these measures move, but I don’t think you’ll see a dramatic shift.”

Across U.S., in Georgia

The debate comes amid national deliberation over gun safety. Congress is expected this week to begin considering legislation that could include expanding background checks for gun buyers and increasing penalties for those who buy guns for criminals.

The debate is also playing out in state capitols across the country. In one closely watched debate, Colorado legislators are considering a package of gun-control bills that include banning weapons on college campuses, requiring background checks on all gun sales and limiting ammunition magazines to 15 rounds.

In Georgia, the pieces of legislation under consideration cover familiar topics, such as whether students should be allowed to carry guns on college campuses and should assault weapons be banned in the state altogether.

But other issues have risen to the top, including expanding mental health checks for gun owners who want to “conceal and carry” and deciding whether public school employees can arm themselves.

“It’s part of a generally conservative agenda which puts a great emphasis on the Second Amendment,” UGA political science professor Charles Bullock said. “In this state, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you’re not going to get very far until you affirm support of gun ownership — even if you (support) greater gun-control measures.”

College campuses are one focal point in the debate.

Some of the classes Taylor Liffers takes at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta are at night. The university has police, but there are times, Liffers said, that he would like to carry his gun as he walks to class.

“It’s a very nervous feeling,” said Liffers, 23, a member of Georgia Students for Concealed Carry. “I find it wrong I’m not allowed to carry on campus.”

It’s a debate that has raged since 2010, when state legislators expanded where Georgians with concealed-carry permits could take their guns. A major victory for gun rights advocates, the effort and subsequent court rulings have excluded churches, colleges and schools from concealed-carry law.

Students can’t keep weapons in dorms or classrooms, but they may store them in locked cars. Guns can be carried into bars, but only with the permission of the bars’ owners. The conceal-carry law also prohibits anyone under age 21 from carrying a gun.

But the so-called campus-carry measure has powerful opposition, including the University System of Georgia. Just last week, University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby and Technical College System of Georgia Commissioner Ron Jackson affirmed that stance in a joint statement.

“The current law is working and is the best and most effective way to protect and ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff (and) members of the public who, alongside our students, annually attend the hundreds of community and athletic events held on campuses,” it stated.

It is an issue on private campuses, too. Agnes Scott College student Lauren Gaia wouldn’t think of carrying a gun at night on her urban campus in Decatur. That, she said, is what the campus public safety department is for: to protect her.

“While I understand the world is becoming more unsafe, I don’t agree the way to make it safer is to carry around firearms on campus,” said Gaia, 21. “College students are adults. But college students are also emotionally charged, busy, overworked. I really worry about our capacity to carry weapons around in that environment.”

Seeking checks to system

Georgia is considered among the nation’s most friendly states for gun owners. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gives Georgia low marks in its annual scorecard of states’ gun-control measures. On a scale of 0 to 100, in which 100 represents the most stringent gun regulations, Georgia is rated an 8 for reasons including no limits on gun purchases, no required background checks for gun show purchases and no ban on assault weapons.

House Bill 303 is among the measures that seek to change that. The bill would mandate background checks for guns bought at gun shows. It would also mandate mental health checks for anyone who has been denied a license to carry a weapon or has had such a license revoked because of mental incompetency.

So would Senate Bill 161, which would require owners diagnosed with a mental disability as many as 10 years ago to get a sworn statement from a psychologist or psychiatrist attesting to their competence before a judge could grant them a concealed-carry license.

“No one’s trying to take away their guns,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, who is quick to add he owns a gun. “We’re talking about what should be common-sense approaches.”

To a degree, some gun advocates might agree.

Members of the 7,300-member Georgia Carry meet all year with legislators. “A lot of the bills that come out we’re not totally for or totally against,” said Jerry Henry, the group’s executive director. “We’re not here fighting everybody.”

Henry said the group has no problem with mental health background checks, although it does not want them to excessively delay the granting of a carry license. The group, however, opposes background checks on private gun sales at gun shows. Such sales are not a big enough share of all sales to make a difference, it says, and regulation of those sales could lead to further regulation at even more personal levels, say between a father and son.

That libertarian streak was on display earlier this month, when gun rights advocates rallied at the Capitol — many of them with firearms slung over their shoulders. Gun-control supporters showed up Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

Two bills would allow school districts to arm employees. Senate Bill 138, which unanimously passed committee Tuesday, would require employees to have at least five years of law enforcement experience and complete a peace officer training course before they could arm themselves on elementary school campuses only.

House Bill 35, which awaits a floor vote in the House, would authorize local school boards to designate any number of employees to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

Both bills would be voluntary, with districts not required to participate. But as with much of this year’s gun legislation, the further they go in the process will only increase the decibel level of the arguments.

“The truth is, I wake up in the morning, look at my children and say, ‘Today, I’m going to do my best to keep them safe,’” said Valerie Hartman, a member of the Greater Atlanta Million Mom March affiliate of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “I don’t want (educators) to have to defend against somebody with a machine gun.”