Posted: 3/9/2008 6:14:07 PM EDT
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All, For those of you guys not members of GCO as of yet, you may or may not know about HB 89. Rather than go into great detail, as a search of ARFCOM will come up with all you need to know, I will tell you that this bill is of great importance if you carry concealed. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Tim Bearden fixes and expands many of the broken aspects of our concealed carry in GA. Malum is a better speaker/writer than I, but I wanted to let everyone know we have 10 days to get HB 89 out of conference committee and back to the floor of the Senate for a vote. If this doesn't happen, we are out for another year, and back to the drawing board. Please take the time to write your Senators, as well as those on the committee requesting they take action on this. With due respect to GCO, I have included the necessary links (WHICH I DIDN'T TRY TO FIX AS THE LAST TIME I PUT LINKS IN USING THE LINK BUTTON, THEY STILL DID NOT WORK) below from their email of the other day, as well as the email I am sending my Senator, as well as to the members of the committee. Again, with respect to GCO, I will paraphrase here, when you send your correspondence, don't mention the NRA, GCO, ARFCOM or any other guy affiliation, this makes us look like gun nuts. Send it as a concerned citizen of GA. I don't see an issue with mentioning you hold or do not hold a GFL. Again, thanks very much to GCO and all the people helping to keep our rights intact. Mr. Murphy, I would like to take a moment of your time to discuss HB 89, currently in conference committee. As you know, this bill was passed by the Senate on 17JAN08 and was sent back to the House for ratification after amendments made by the Senate. After passing the House, this bill was sent back to the Senate for further ratification of additional amendments. My understanding is the Senate, prior to sending it back to the House on the 17th, vowed to strike down the legislation if the House made any further amendments. The House did make further amendments, these amendments were of interest to me, as a GFL holder, and as a citizen of the State of Georgia. When the bill was returned to the Senate, rather than vote on the bill, it was sent to a conference committee, where it currently sits, and I am afraid, it was sent there to wither. Sir, HB 89 is very important to me, and has many provisions that I see as beneficial to me as a citizen of Georgia, but also to me as a GFL holder. There are many places in the state of GA that are off-limits to holders of GFL permits to carry a weapon to. These same places are not off-limits to those that violate the law. Gun free zones are only gun free to those people who respect and follow the law. A criminal does not remove his weapon to eat at a restaurant that serves beer, only the law abiding GFL permit holder does. After the many school shootings that have happened as of late, and the church shooting in Colorado, I am still amazed at how many people feel that restricting the ability of law abiding citizens to carry weapons will make anyone safe. If you take my gun from me, or my ability to carry my gun, how is that making the streets of our state any safer? It is not making anything or anyone any safer. All that has happened is to remove my ability to protect myself and/or my family. It has done ABSOLUTELY nothing to remove a gun from a criminals hands. As a matter of fact, you have emboldened that criminal in that he knows there is a better than average chance when he robs me/my family leaving a restaurant that we will not have an adequate means of protecting ourselves. Sir, I urge you to speak with your fellow Senators and push to have HB 89 brought out of committee and to the Senate floor for a vote. I further request that if/when that happens, that you vote YES for HB 89 in its current state. Thank you very much for your time, MY NAME MY ADDRESS Canton, GA MY PHONE NUMBER Here is the contact information for your Senator. http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/senatelist.php Here is contact information for Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. Office of the Lieutenant Governor Administrative Staff 240 State Capitol Atlanta, GA 30334 TEL: (404) 656-5030 FAX: (404) 656-6739 Email: http://ltgov.georgia.gov/00/ltgov/contact_us/0,2688,2199618_87997337,00.html Here is contact information for Senator Ronnie Chance: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/chancebio.php Her is contact information for Senator Joseph Carter: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/carterbio.php Here is contact information for Senator Don Balfour: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/balfourbio.php HB 89 - http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/sum/hb89.htm Here is the amendment to HB 89 that the House passed and to which the Senate disagreed: http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2007_08/versions/hb89_HB_89_House_Amend_to_Sen_Sub_11.htm Status - conference committee |
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Please be polite and humble. The Legislators could very easily kill the bill by leaving it in conference committee. The Legislators have lots of bills and issues pulling at them and very limited time to deal with them all. We have to convince the Legislators to pull HB89 out of the big stack and pass it. Since none of us are big financial contributors, our only leverage is our likeability. PS .... the time to challenge them on thier votes is election time, when they want something from you, your vote. I plan to make sure my neighbors and gun-owning friends know what our Senator did or didn't do. |
| I spoke with a republican Ga. Representative yesterday and mentioned it to him, specifically asking about the parking lot at work. He told me in short order that a private property owners rights "trump" a citizen's "gun rights", period. I got the feeling it will be watered down considerably and nothing much will change. |
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I think the compromise on the parking lots is figured out, most aren't worried about that anymore. It's the House's amendments repealing a very large chunk of the Public Gathering laws that we're really concerned with--and that's what the big debate is over at this point. Focus on that if you get a chance to talk to any Senators--explain to them that you're more concerned about being able to carry when out in public doing everyday stuff (out to dinner with family, stopping at rest areas on long trips, etc.), and remind them that the House's amendments DO NOT infringe on property rights! If anything, they expand them; restaurants and churches would still be able to prohibit guns on property, but now they would have a choice in the matter, instead of it being prohibited completely by the state. FWIW, I agree with 953's sentiment; property rights should hold precedence. But that should be up to the property owner whether to allow guns, not the state. |
You hit the nail on the head. The parking lots issue has been worked out. The only thing left is whether the Senate is going to allow HB 89 to keep any or all of the House amendment, which relates to repealing many of Georgia's "places off limits" to carrying a firearm. Restaurants Mass transit churches WMAs Publicly Owned Buildings (replaced with government offices - so you can at least stop off in the restroom while in a park without committing a crime) Public gatherings generally |