Georgia State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, the GOP Republican whip, wants to clarify Georgia's sometimes confusing and contradictory firearm laws. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is Sen. Seabaugh's approach to clarifying the law. Legislation he's proposed would expand rather than reduce the places where gun owners with permits could carry their weapons. That's a very bad idea.
The proposal, put forward on Tuesday, would allow gun owners licensed to carry concealed weapons to tote them to church, into bars, onto college campuses, in school zones and in publicly accessible areas of airports. That would include Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the world's busiest. Permitting gun owners to carry weapons into those places exposes the general public to unacceptable risk. It also would make it more difficult for law enforcement and security officials to enforce the law fairly and efficiently.
The proposed new rules, proponents say, would apply only to licensed gun owners. That's hardly a comfort. Those not familiar with the topic might assume permitted gun owners are relatively few in number. Not in Georgia. Approximately 300,000 state residents currently have gun permits, and the number is growing.
The National Association of Chiefs of Police reports that there was a 30 percent rise in gun sales in the United States in 2009. Georgia law enforcement officials and gun dealers aren't sure whether the state matched that increase, but agree that sales were higher last year than in 2008. That's reason for considerable concern.
The potential for gun-related mayhem mounts, of course, as the number of guns in circulation expands. Need proof? Not a week goes by nowadays without a report of gun violence leading to death and injury in the workplace, at a school or in a public venue. Many of those incidents are perpetrated by licensed gun owners.
Sen. Seabaugh and proponents of his bill say the proposed legislation will strike a fair balance between public safety and private citizens' rights. To that end, they say, the legislation would ban guns inside elementary and secondary schools, in college dormitories and in government offices. The legislation also would allow restaurant owners, churches and many other private property owners to choose whether or not guns would be allowed on the property. That's hardly in the public interest. The latter is a prescription for widespread confusion, not the clarity the gun bill purports to seek.
Gun owners and law enforcement officials alike would find it next to impossible to determine whether or not it was legal to carry a weapon in certain places. Most people, in fact, are unlikely to pay attention to the individual quirks in the law. Those with concealed weapons will continue to carry them wherever they go, thus leading to the possibility of more violence.
The proposed legislation is not all bad. It does have one redeeming point. Sen. Seabaugh's bill would place responsibility for firearms licensing with the secretary of state's office rather than with probate judges in each of Georgia's 159 counties. That makes sense. Central administration of firearms licensing would create a single standard across the state rather than allow potentially troublesome variations from county to county. Still, that beneficial change is no reason to overhaul current firearms laws in a manner that surely would promote more widespread carrying of guns in the state.
The more proper goal is to reduce the number of concealed weapons in circulation, not increase them. Though Sen. Seabaugh's bill won praise from the usual gaggle of gun supporters, it so far has failed to find resonance in legislative halls. Most Georgia lawmakers say, quite reasonably, that balancing the budget while providing necessary services to state residents -- not new and permissive gun laws -- will be the focus of their work this year. It should be. If Sen. Seabaugh's proposals reach the floor this session, they should be rejected.