There’s no mistaking Georgians like their guns. But a clash on whether to expand gun laws here in the wake of the Connecticut shootings may be in the making when lawmakers converge at the Capitol in January.
College students who want to carry firearms on campus and in their dormitories plan to push for such a law when the General Assembly next meets Jan. 14.
Their vocal desire has already received a chilly reception from some of the state’s top lawmakers, many of whom said they expect to wait until the new year to continue any earnest discussion of gun legislation.
“Whether you are a Second Amendment supporter or someone who strongly backs gun control, the first priority should be to come together and pray for the healing and future of Newtown and Sandy Hook Elementary” in Connecticut, said state Sen. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, who was endorsed this year for re-election by the National Rifle Association.
“I do expect gun legislation to be discussed during the 2013 legislative session,” he said. “However, it will be imperative for legislators to review the overall impact of the bill rather than reacting impulsively.”
Georgia is considered among the nation’s most friendly states for gun owners. In a measure of how lenient its laws are viewed, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave Georgia low marks in its annual scorecard of states’ gun-control measures. On a scale of 0 to 100, in which 100 represents the most stringent gun regulations, Georgia was rated an 8 for reasons including no limits on gun purchases, no required background checks for gun show purchases and no ban on assault weapons.
Under current Georgia law, students can’t keep weapons in dorms or classrooms, but they may keep them locked in their cars.
State law also prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from carrying a gun.
In the state House during this year’s legislative session in February, there was a sweeping proposal to allow Georgians to carry concealed weapons in bars, public schools, most government buildings, college campuses and other locations. But the bill went nowhere, as did an NRA-backed proposal to allow hunters to use gun silencers.
Lawmakers previously had passed a bill in 2010 that expanded where those with concealed-carry permits could take their guns, but churches, colleges and schools were excluded from that law.
Robert Eagar, who leads Georgia Tech’s chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, hopes lawmakers will carry out their pledge to change state law. Before the Newtown massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school, some lawmakers told Eagar a “campus carry” bill would be filed at the start of the legislative session.
Eagar acknowledged the emotions surrounding the issue now and the need to be sensitive, but said that doesn’t mean lawmakers should abandon their plans.
“We are trying to prevent mass shootings from happening on campus,” said Eagar, a senior. “We are trying to protect ourselves from crime.”
During the summer and fall semesters, there were a series of armed robberies against metro Atlanta college students as they were on or near campus. Student victims attended Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and the Atlanta University Center, which includes Morehouse and Spelman colleges.
In July, armed burglars entered a locked dorm at Georgia Tech and held up a student inside his room.
College presidents and leaders in the University System of Georgia, however, say more guns on campus won’t solve anything.
They have strongly lobbied in years past to maintain the current law, which prohibits people from carrying guns on college campuses.
The system’s position remains unchanged, spokesman John Millsaps said Tuesday. “Current Georgia law works in the best interest of our students, faculty and staff,” Millsaps said.
House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, said she is more interested in talking about gun control. Among her possible targets: The state’s “stand your ground law” that allows people to use deadly force rather than retreat when threatened.
“What the Connecticut shootings demonstrated is we don’t have the luxury of not acting,” said Abrams, adding that expanding guns to campuses “is dangerous at best and irresponsible at the very least.”
“We have to provide what minimal protection is afforded to us to protect the children in our care,” she said.
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