State lawmakers backed off proposals Tuesday to ease where guns could be carried in Georgia, all but conceding efforts to allow guns on college campuses.
The move came as the Georgia House and Senate began to spar in earnest over provisions involving schools, churches and government buildings.
The back-and-forth sets the stage for negotiations that could go down to the wire, as two competing bills emerged in what are the final days of this year’s legislative session. Neither side seems far apart.
Gun rights supporters from the House floor amended a minor bill Tuesday morning and inserted much of the language from House Bill 875, the main gun bill of this session. The move appears to have been made in response to widespread changes made to the bill in a draft version circulating in the Senate and obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The actions involving what is now House Bill 60 were designed to garner additional support and quell criticism of the original HB 875, said House Public Safety Committee Chairman Alan Powell, R-Hartwell. Among changes:
- The provision that said a licensed weapons permit holder would only face a $100 civil fine if caught with a weapon on a college campus was eliminated.
- In the section that barred those judged mentally ill from receiving a permit, HB 60 now offers those individuals a right to appeal that ruling.
- Local governments would get more flexibility to the provision allowing weapons in public buildings where no security guards the door.
In the Senate’s draft of HB 875, which has not yet been introduced:
- The bill would reassert control over the issue of "campus carry" to powerful institutions such as the state Board of Regents, which has strongly opposed efforts to allow guns on campuses in the University System of Georgia.
- It would still allow guns in churches, but would make the provision an "opt in" — meaning church leaders don't have to act unless they want to allow guns in churches. Original wording would have lifted the state's ban of guns in churches unilaterally unless leaders vote to prohibit them on individual church properties.
- It would give local governments more flexibility to the provision allowing weapons in "nonsecure" public buildings.
The Senate’s version of the bill came as the chamber’s Judiciary Non-Civil Committee held a more-than-three-hour hearing on the House version of HB 875 but took no vote. More than 45 people testified about the version that did not include the proposed Senate changes, with opponents outnumbering supporters.
The original bill, which is still alive, would lift restrictions on guns in churches and bars and allow school boards to arm employees. It would also no longer be a crime, under the bill, for licensed owners to carry guns on college campuses, where they are banned. Instead, those caught would face a civil penalty, a $100 fine.
It also would create a system to make sure those deemed mentally ill don’t qualify for a license.
Supporters said the bill affirms a citizen’s right to bear arms, and treats private property — including churches — equally under the law. They also talked of safety.
“I’d much rather have a gun with me in church than sit like a duck on a pond waiting to be picked off,” said grandmother LaDonna Lowe, who spoke in support of the bill and described a robbery at her church during a service.
Opponents, including the parents of gun victims, called it wrongheaded and morally questionable. More than 200 religious leaders across the state, including Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple synagogue in Atlanta and bishops of the state’s Episcopal Church have publicly decried it. So have law enforcement officers, teachers, county administrators, mayors including Atlanta’s Kasim Reed and the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Among those testifying Tuesday was Christine King Farris, the only living sibling of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. On June 30, 1974, their mother, Alberta Williams King, was inside Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church playing the organ when she was shot and killed by 23-year-old Marcus Wayne Chenault.
“I am here today because I believe this proposed law would only make it easier for this tragedy to happen today,” Farris said.
About the Author
