Potential Good news for GFL holders
I received this in an email from GeorgiaCarry.Org (which you should join if you're not a member), which is a group fighting for 2nd Amendment rights here in GA. They've already done quite a bit in their short history.
Tomorrow may change Georgia law significantly. GCO expects that HB 257, as amended to authorize carry in restaurants and on mass transit, will come out of committee and pass the Senate and then the House. GCO also expects the older, Senate version of the House will report out of committee and pass through the Senate and then the House.
In this issue:
(1) What This Means If Successful
(2) GCO, Sen. Douglas, and Alice Johnson All in One News Video
(3) Why You May Soon Carry at Kennesaw Mountain
(4) An AJC Poll on HB 257
(5) Another Story on Sen. Fort's Maneuver Yesterday
(6) Peachpundit is "Uncomfortable"
(7) GCO Victory over Fulton County!
(8) GCO In The Courtroom
(1) What This Means If Successful
(a) Restaurants will no longer be public gatherings. You may not consume alcoholic beverages while carrying a firearm, however. Carry in restaurants has been the number one concern of GCO members, and this will address it.
(b) MARTA and other mass transit systems will be decriminalized for those holding a firearms license. This will not override any federal laws. Current law provides for 20 years in prison for having a firearm at a bus stop, so this change will rid GCO members of the most draconian penalty in the Code for having a firearm in the wrong place with no intent to harm anyone.
(c) State Parks, historic sites, and recreational areas under the control of the DNR will no longer be off limits. GCO is hopeful that the final vesion will include the public buildings, as well, so that GCO members do not have to suffer the indignity of "holding it" rather than visiting the public restroom facilities. The public building change is also necessary to keep GCO members from becoming unintentional lawbreakers when leaving their firearm behind in a vehicle adjacent to the building where one purchases the parking pass. The parks change also means that once the Department of the Interior makes the expected change to have National Parks reflect state law, the 12 National Parks in Georgia will no longer be off limits.
(d) People eligible for a license will be able to put a gun anywhere inside a motor vehicle.
(e) Straw purchases will become a state level crime, which will stop Mayor Bloomberg and others like him from coming into Georgia.
(f) Probate judges will have only 10 days to issue a license once the background check returns, and there will be strict timelines for beginning the investigative process (2 business days). This is something that most probate judges are doing now, thanks to GCO, but hopefully this legislation will take care of the few around the state who are still delaying this process.
GCO spent a significant amount of time at the Capitol today (in addition to the GCO lobbyists that are at the Capitol everyday), and we expect these measures to pass tomorrow.
(2) GCO, Sen. Douglas, and Alice Johnson All in One News Video
CBS46News managed to place notorious anti-liberty Alice Johnson, from "Georgians for Gun Safety," Sen. Douglas, who carried the amendments to HB 257 in the Senate Wednesday, and Ed Stone, the President of GCO, all into the same news segment. You may watch it here.
http://www.cbs46.com/video/15786558/index.html?taf=lnta
For those who were not aware of it, Sen. Douglas is a proud GCO member (and yes, we had his permission to disclose that).
(3) Why You May Soon Carry at Kennesaw Mountain
The mass media has finally keyed in on the fact that repealing the ban on State Parks is soon going to mean it will no longer be criminal to carry in a National Park. Here is a story today from the AJC. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/sha...llowed_to.html
Friday is about to become a very big payday for gun rights advocates.
Here’s the deal:
Two bills will move, not one. H.B. 257, which now permits those with concealed weapons permits to carry in restaurants and on rail and bus systems, is but one chunk.
H.B. 89 will also move. . . .
Right now, chances of passage for both must be rated very good. Opposition is scarce. Joe Fleming, lobbyist for the Georgia chamber, says his group will be focused H.B. 89, to make sure the parking lots language doesn’t change.
Whether restaurant groups, MARTA and other transit systems raise objections — and raise them quickly enough — will determine whether H.B. 257 has tough sledding.
. . .
The language redefining “public gatherings” where firearms remain prohibited has been abandoned. You will not be permitted to carry a concealed weapon into church.
But the bill will:
— Require expedited treatment for concealed weapons permits by the probate court judges who issue them;
— Relax state restrictions on where firearms can be stored in vehicles;
— Make “straw” purchases of firearms illegal — a way of prohibiting lawsuits of the type filed by New York against gun dealers in Georgia, alleging they are sources for weapons that flow into states where buying a gun is much more difficult or time-consuming.
— And it will allow licensed concealed weapons to be carried in state parks and historical sites.
This last part is important, and here’s why:
U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has said his department would suggest new regulations by the end of this month that would amount to the biggest relaxation of gun-toting rules in federal parks in more than a century.
Basically, he said that concealed weapons would be permitted — if the U.S. parks are located in states that permit carrying in their parks. So passage of H.B. 89 would insure that, someday soon, visitors to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park and the federal Chattahoochee River park would also be able to carry concealed.
GCO's take on this article: This is good news! Even the liberal media is now predicting we will win. Watch the General Assembly closely tomorrow. We have a historic chance to change the law in Georgia in favor of the right to bear arms in a way that has never before been accomplished in this State.
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