A state lawmaker wants Georgians to pass a firearms safety course before they can qualify for a permit to carry a gun.
State Rep. Keisha Waites, D-Atlanta, has pre-filed House Bill 709, which would require anyone applying for a Georgia Weapons Permit to pass a basic firearms training course. The training must include instruction on handling the weapon, as well as loading and firing.
Certified peace officers, active-duty military and licensed firearms instructors would be exempt.
The training requirement would be in addition to the current application process, which requires a background check and finger-printing.
Waites said her plan is a “common-sense bill.”
“This is simply a means to protect people and get them to think about safety,” she said. “We need to move away from the conversation about gun rights. This is purely a public safety situation.”
Waites’ bill faces steep odds. Democratic lawmakers have little power to move legislation in the General Assembly, where the Republican majority has proved itself to be a proponent of expanding gun rights.
State Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said it’s “pretty much impossible” that Waites’ bill advances. Even so, Powell said, he thinks the idea has some merit.
“I didn’t really have a problem with it, just me personally, with doing some sort of minimum training course, just to show you have a certain level of proficiency,” Powell said.
During the 2014 debate on HB 60, which broadened the right to carry in the state, Waites tried twice to require safety courses as part of the weapons permit process. Supporters of the bill fought back and said the state should not require its residents to pass a course to exercise a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Powell said it “didn’t take me but a skinny minute to figure out we didn’t want to do that.” The opposition, he said, “was a firestorm.”
Waites said she has a license to carry a firearm, but that when she first applied, she knew little about loading, firing and carrying a gun.
“If you’re going to have a weapon on your person, you most certainly need to at least know how to handle it,” she said.
Many states already require training courses as part of their weapons permit process. A 2012 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia all required applicants to pass some kind of safety course. South Carolina, too, has a training requirement for its weapons license.
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