Gun dealers would have to provide a gun lock with every purchase of a firearm and Georgians judged mentally ill would have to get sign-off from a health professional before having their rights restored, under gun control measures proposed Thursday by state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
The bills, while unlikely to pass the Republican-dominated Georgia Legislature, are the latest by Democrats trying to wrest attention from gun advocates at the Capitol. Just Wednesday, the author of 2014 legislation that expanded gun rights in Georgia proposed another effort to legalize firearms on college campuses.
The "campus carry" effort is backed by top Republican leaders in the state House, where Reps. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, and Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, filed House Bill 859 to make it legal for any age 21 or older with a state weapons license to carry guns onto public college and university campuses.
Parent, however, said she was more interested in what she called “common sense solutions to protect our children and others from unintended violence.”
“Gun locks protect children from deadly and tragic accidents. In the past week, six children in our country were killed or seriously in accidental shootings,” Parent said. “My other bill addresses another glaring issue. We can prevent those suffering from a mental illness and found to be a danger to themselves or others from buying guns.”
The effort comes amid national debate over what President Barack Obama has called “the scourge of gun violence in this country. ” Obama has pursued new executive actions tightening the rules for firearms sales.
Among other gun control proposals circulating around the Georgia , House Bill 709 from Atlanta's state Rep. Keisha Waites would require anyone applying for a Georgia Weapons Permit to pass a basic firearms training course; and House Bill 731 from state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, would ban AK-47s and other assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and armor-piercing bullets.
State Rep. Buzz Brockway, R-Lawrenceville, however, has said the state's college students at least 18 years old should legally be able to carry Taser and other stun guns to protect themselves — something he sees as a "middle ground" in the most recent debate about guns on campuses.
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