A win for civil rights in Georgia
A bill in GA heading to the governor:
The bill allows people with a weapons permit to carry loaded guns into bars, as long as they do not consume alcohol — although the bill does not say how that caveat would be enforced. (just like most states – Ed)
It allows guns in public areas of airports and eliminates criminal charges for permit holders caught with guns at airport security (good – Ed). It authorizes school districts to appoint staff members to carry guns at schools, ostensibly to defend students in case of an attack.
It allows felons to claim the Stand Your Ground defense — in which someone who “reasonably believes” his life is in danger has no duty to walk away and may instead shoot to kill (Well, felons have civil rights too – Ed). And that is just the beginning (Cool – Ed. BTW, who’s Ed?).
And all of this causes Herbert Buchsbaum to posit this ridiculously stupid assertion about a recent shooting:
It is not clear whether the new law would have changed anything. Milo’s already had “No Weapons” signs posted. Anyone there with a gun was already violating existing law as well as the bar’s policy.
It’s actually crystal fucking clear to anyone with a god-damned brain that the bill would not have changed anything, Moron.
March 26th, 2014 at 10:26 pm
As of July 2010, it was already legal to carry in a bar, so long as you asked for and were granted permission by the owner. The new law simply reverses the burden to the bar owner. Also, Georgia law does not currently prohibit drinking while carrying (nor carrying while drinking), and the new law does not add any such prohibition. Current law does prohibit discharging a firearm while under the influence (0.08% BAC), but makes an exception for firing in defense of self or others.
March 27th, 2014 at 7:46 am
I’ve always said if there’s one place a lawful citizen needs to be legally armed, it’s a bar.
I’m also sure that the legally armed patron who put that murdering subhuman down several years ago at the Players Bar & Grill in Winnemucca, Nevada, would agree with me.
March 27th, 2014 at 9:25 am
“It allows felons to claim the Stand Your Ground defense….” but I have a hard time believing a felon in possession of a firearm (quite illegally) won’t be charged as a felon in possession of a firearm, no matter how legit the act of self defense that occurs. In fact, I would want the felon in possession of a firearm to be prosecuted for that possession, even if he had just saved a short bus load of school kids.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:32 am
I’d be willing to let that slide in such a situation. But then again, I don’t believe “felon in possession” should be a crime in the first place.
March 27th, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Georgia has always allowed felons to claim stand your ground defense (aka self defense) as GA has never had a duty to retreat.
Stand your ground immunity is not available to felons now nor will it be after this bill.
What the bill does say is that if your use of force is justified, then you cannot be found guilty of carrying without a license or carrying in an unauthorized location. Felon or no felon.
This also would not stop the federal government from going after a felon with a gun.