The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Georgia's law that bans guns in places of worship.
The decision came on an appeal filed by a Thomaston minister who challenged the relatively new Georgia law that eliminated the "public places," but specifically listed where firearms are prohibited to eight places, which included places of worship such as churches, synagogues and masques.
The preacher said the ban forced him to choose between two constitutional protections — the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom to worship how he pleased and the Second Amendment right to carry arms.
A federal judge in Columbus upheld that portion of the law and the appeals court in Atlanta agreed with Judge Clay Land.
Judge Gerald Tjoflat, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, said GeorgiaCarry.org's argument that the law is unconstitutional "badly misses the mark.
" We conclude that the Second Amendment does not give an individual a right to carry a firearm on a place of worship's premises against the owner's wishes because such right did not pre-exist the Amendment's adoption," Tjoflat wrote. "Enforcing the Carry Law against a license holder who carries a firearm on private property against the owner's instructions would therefore be constitutional."
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