It has taken five days for members of the Georgia Legislature to discover what changes in state gun law they actually voted to approve in the last final, confusing hours of the 2014 General Assembly, which ended Thursday.
That’s how long it has taken legislative employees to compile the flurry of paperwork — the amendments to the amendments to the substitute bill, etc. — and post the actual language of House Bill 60 for all to see. So let’s take a little tour through the bill, so we can better appreciate the handiwork of those elected to govern us:
— If you’ve been convicted of “intentionally and without legal justification point(ing) or aim(ing) a gun or pistol at another,” don’t worry. HB 60 means you can still get yourself a state-granted permit to carry a weapon in public, no questions asked. If you’ve pleaded no contest to a criminal charge, your ability to get a permit is also unrestricted.
— Unlike states such as Texas, Georgia requires no training or testing of those licensed to carry in public. Now, as a result of HB 60, those license holders will be able to take their weapons into airports as long as they don’t try to enter restricted areas. Those license holders who do try to take weapons through airport security will be able to walk away scot-free — no arrest, charge, fine or consequence — if they’re caught.
— For the first time, license holders will be able to take weapons into bars, because nothing makes a beer taste better than knowing that you’ve got a .38 tucked into your shoulder holster.
— Unless they’re stopped by expensive security systems, such as that employed at the Capitol to protect legislators, license holders will also be able take weapons into any state or local government building. City and county officials in jurisdictions that can’t afford such systems and that don’t have the extensive, heavily armed protection provided at the Capitol by the state patrol are on their own.
— If a police officer spots someone carrying a weapon in a government building, a bar, a church, an airport or anywhere else in public, the officer will be forbidden by state law from stopping that person to see if they have a gun permit. The change renders the law almost impossible to enforce, and in effect gives everybody in the state — criminal or upstanding citizen, sane or insane — an open-carry permit.
— If someone claiming to have a permit for the gun in their possession is arrested, law enforcement will have no quick way to determine if it’s true. Under HB 60, the state is forbidden to compile a list of those who have valid permits to carry, and permit holders who don’t carry their permits with them are now subject to a whopping $10 fine.
— Convicted felons who are banned by law from possessing firearms can still use the Stand Your Ground defense if they use a firearm to kill someone.
— If a license holder takes a gun into a church, against the rules of that church, they are subject merely to a $100 fine and cannot be arrested. And again, no one will be able to check if they have a permit anyway.
— HB 60 will allow teachers, administrators, janitors, cooks or other school employees to carry concealed weapons in schools as long as they’ve been given permission by the school district. The bill includes a lax, ill-defined training requirement that falls far short of what is required of certified law enforcement. It’s nuts. Why require police officers to undergo that extensive training and testing if you’re going to give a similar power to untrained teachers and custodians in a school setting?
— It will now be legal in Georgia to hunt with weapons equipped with silencers. Why? I do not know. You don’t need silencers to hunt. I do know that suppressing the sound of gunfire in the woods will make it more difficult for hikers, birdwatchers, farmers and other outdoorsmen to know that active hunters are out there.
Many who voted for the bill last week have to be secretly appalled by what they have done, what they lacked the guts to stop. That includes legislative leadership and, most prominently, state Sen. Jason Carter, the Decatur Democrat who voted in favor of the bill because after all, this is an election year and he’s running for governor.
All in the name of the state motto, “Wisdom, Justice and Moderation,” right?
More like Anarchy, Chaos and Insanity.
