Georgia’s low-key Gov. Nathan Deal was dead-on in remarking that, “This has not been an easy year to be governor.”
In a year when lawmakers in Georgia and other states seemed uncommonly determined to pass as many misbegotten snippets of unneeded law as possible, it’s indeed rough work to occupy the desk where the buck finally slams to a halt. Even for this rabidly partisan age, the caravan of election-year legislation containing little more than prominent displays of red meat stretched to the horizon.
Gov. Deal found himself hard against the wall that is a toxic political landscape. Yet, he did not falter in his resolve to do right by Georgia – and history.
In the stack of legislation rocketed his way, several works stood out. A “religious liberty” bill could have enabled people to legally discriminate against others under the guise of practicing a freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Another piece of law would have – with razor-narrow limitations — legalized the carrying of guns on college campuses.
Gov. Deal rightly rejected both. He could have made easy, though wrong, choices. If Deal had signed the bills, he’d have merely gone along with the GOP majority in the Legislature. A more-wily route would have been to simply do nothing, and let the legislation become law by default.
To his great credit, the governor courageously vetoed both. We believe history will approve of his actions.
And that is what counts in the long run. Leadership, particularly in the executive branch, should be about finding ways to do the hard, and correct, things — even when what’s right is also vehemently unpopular. Doing that demands fortitude and wisdom. Gov. Deal has shown both this year.
The governor’s explanatory veto statement for HB 859, the campus carry bill, is eloquent, logical and thorough. Gov. Deal noted that some of the Founding Fathers forbade weapons on a state university campus nearly 200 years ago.
He also pointed out the most-ignored portion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller v. D.C. ruling that strongly affirmed the Second Amendment’s right of individuals to possess arms. None other than the late Justice Antonin Scalia, in writing the majority opinion, observed that this right is not absolute. As Deal noted in his veto explanation, “Justice Scalia further states that ‘nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on … laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings…’ ”
We believe Scalia would be shocked today at the widespread, willful overlooking of this important context.
And, yes, the Second Amendment clearly confers the right to bear arms. Yet, as Scalia wrote, that right, like others, is subject to reasonable, commonsense limits.
Given that lawmakers, including House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, have promised that campus carry is not dead in Georgia, we’d urge them to turn their focus toward the phrase “well-regulated” in the Second Amendment. In order to truly make Georgia a safer place, lawmakers would do well, in considering their next gun law moves, to consider training and marksmanship proficiency requirements for Georgia Weapons Carry License holders. Many other states already have them.
Given the hijinks seen so far, 2016 is turning out to be an election year for the history books. When that backdrop’s factored in, Deal’s vetoes took even more guts.
We urge members of the Georgia General Assembly to show similar fortitude and maturity in not punishing the governor by holding his agenda hostage when the Legislature resumes. Especially when it comes to the remainder of Deal’s proposals to reform K-12 public education. Georgia’s children should not suffer because adult politicians disagree.
Lawmakers should follow the path of virtue and quickly give full attention to education in 2017. High among their priorities should be thorough consideration and needed action around a long-overdue update of the state’s formula for funding public education.
Election-year shenanigans should not cause the youth who are Georgia’s real future to suffer longer in substandard schools. The state should remain focused on the long-haul work toward creating schools that match Georgia’s robust economic ambitions.
Doing otherwise will harm both our system of governance and Georgia’s children.
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