Posted on 09/24/2008 1:16:36 PM PDT by Daffynition
ATLANTA -- Georgia lawmakers are considering allowing guns in more public places, including churches, sporting events, and even university campuses.
Religious leaders were among those who spoke out against the possible changes Tuesday, saying churches, temples and mosques should remain gun-free sanctuaries.
The chairman of a state Senate study committee looking at Georgia's firearms laws cautioned that any proposed legislation was in its infancy.
"We're working toward a draft," said state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, a Republican from Sharpsburg.
But "template" legislation circulated Tuesday would make it possible for the estimated 300,000 Georgians with gun permits to carry their weapons to more public gatherings.
Gun rights supporters have complained for years that Georgia's public gathering restrictions are far too strict. They ban weapons at bars, sporting events, political rallies, churches and public buildings.
Those laws began to ease earlier this year as Georgia legislators passed a bill allowing those with permits to carry firearms in state parks, mass transit and in restaurants that serve alcohol. Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the law, which took effect July 1.
It is currently illegal to carry a gun into a house of worship. A trio of religious leaders told the lawmakers they want it to remain that way.
"Churches, synagogues and communities of faith should be protected places," Pastor Bradley Schmeling, of St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta, said.
He and others pointed to deadly shootings at churches in recent years.
But Seabaugh echoed an argument that has been made regularly among some gun rights advocates: The death toll at some of those churches might have been lower if parishioners were armed and able to fight back.
Seabaugh said he could support an opt-out provision allowing churches that don't want guns to keep them out.
College campuses have also been struck by violence. And officials with the Georgia Board of Regents said Tuesday they want the law banning guns on university campuses to remain intact.
But Matthew Podowitz of Atlanta said the law needs updating to remove ambiguities that leave him guessing whether he is complying or not.
"It puts me at risk of being prosecuted even when I try to comply," Podowitz said.
Georgia lawmakers could consider changes to the state's gun laws when they return to the Capitol in January.
Just keep making places where anyone who wants to use a gun for a crime know where to victimize people who do not have one accessible.
Back in the 80’s my church had a guy come in during service and he shot several before subdued. Of those that remember it I’d venture that about 1 in 5 now carry in church.
I carry everywhere including picking my kids up at school. Key phrases to remember “concealed”, “better to have it and not need it...”, “better judged by 12 than carried by 6”.
Any owner of private property, whether churches, bars, shopping malls, or sports venues has the absolute right to bar weapons from their premises. While I’m all for CCW, I think to be consistent constitutionally you have to be all for the rights of property owners.
Obama’s horror. People bitterly clinging to their guns AND God at the same time !
Why we even have these wrong-headed laws in the first place irks me.
I hope this doesn’t stall in the GA legislature and just disappear. Every state should be reversing these laws that go against my natural rights. Might as well make GA a test study and hope it spreads like wildfire.
AKA target rich environments for psychopathic killers.
Yes, they can have whatever policy they want,but they do not have the right for the government to ban guns for them.
Well, that’s OK.
People also have the right to go to other “churches, bars, shopping malls, or sports venues”.
Any owner of private property, whether churches, bars, shopping malls, or sports venues has the absolute right to bar weapons from their premises
Allow me to carry, so I can defend myself, or be strictly liable for protecting me.
I don’t agree with you when that property is open to the public.
As far as I’m concerned if there’s a gun concealed on my hip it’s no business of yours.
Look at it logically, would you prohibit people carrying knives? People carrying sharp pens?
Would you think your right to restrict what a person carries on their person permits you to ban the contents of their wallets? How about people carrying pictures of Barack Obama? What about people with Communist Party membership cards?
What about YMCA cards?
See, the way I see it, my clothes, my wallet, the contents of my pockets and whatever weapon I am carrying, be it gun, knife, baton or sharp pen, is my right to carry, and no store keeper should have the right to tell me what I can and cannot carry upon my person.
Ed
“”Churches, synagogues and communities of faith should be protected places..”
AKA target rich environments for psychopathic killers.”
A good reason to stay home and watch a TV preacher...not. I prefer to protect myself, the Minister’s and Rabi’s can pray for a miracle and hope an armed churchgoer responds.
It just burns me up when these people put religious dogma ahead of reality and common sense.
Oh yeah, I regularly carry when I go to church. Nobody knows it, so don't tell anyone, okay?
I am all right with guns being most everywhere, as long as it is in public. If a church does not want guns on its premises, it is not up to the government to demand that they permit it, either.
Corporations shouldn’t be able to generally exclude gun owning employees, though, except as an immediate safety risk.
Heck, a know a bunch of otherwise nice people that I wouldn’t let bring a gun into my house, either. I know a lot who I would, but that’s not the point.
Don’t want any guns in the MRI lab. But then again, I don’t want any magnetic metal in the MRI lab at all.
I knew of a judge who frequently gave court orders to women with violent ex-boyfriends and husbands, that they *had* to be armed in public. And that’s good too. He noted that after he started doing this, violent assaults against those women dropped to zero.
And finally, I prefer CC to open carry, because I think it matters far less what a violent criminal thinks, than what a violent criminal knows. That is, I care less if an open carry weapon makes him think he better not try it on right then; than that he is unaware that a CC holder has drawn down on him and he is about to become air conditioned.
Li scened CCW carriers should be able to carry everywhere our public officials are allowed to carry.
If a uniformed cop with a gun can go into the bar uninvited, then so should a CCW holder.
There is a 2nd Amendment, this is a right not a option.
Indeed - just like anywhere else that carry is allowed. Despite the classic sentiment, God doesn't give some buildings special protections just because we think He should.
Of course there is the 2nd Amendment as well as the 1st.
As a property owner I can tell you what you can and can’t say.
Ie profanity, wearing profane t-shirts, you can’t petition on my property.
Property Rights should not infringed on by another person.
In contrast, more liberty should be given to carrying a CCW onto Public property.
You didn’t address my point of private property used for public access.
Can you refuse blacks service in your business if they meet your dress codes and behavior standards that you expect of all your patrons?
If not, per your own definition, shouldn’t it be your private property rights to do so?
Not picking on you but where is the real line? I’m not sure myself.
If a property owner desires to keep out guns, knives, etc., then yes he should be able to do so. To say otherwise, that is to say that I have a right to carry a gun onto another’s property, is to say that the government must act to protect that right by jailing or otherwise punishing the property owner. Just as your right to swing your fist end’s at the tip of your neighbor’s nose, your right to carry ends at his threshold. The government need not ban it, but the property owner must be allowed to or he is being deprived of his right to truly own it.
I’d love for some Conservatives to run for and win elected office in NYC. Another massive Liberal stronghold of all sorts.
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