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.