I Thought Georgia And South Carolina Were Gun Friendly States?
BY Herschel Smith
4 years ago
Mark Walters writing at Ammoland.
March 17, 2020, GeorgiaCarry.Org was informed that the Probate Courts across the state of Georgia would temporarily suspend acceptance of applications for Georgia Weapons Carry Licenses and the renewal of Georgia Weapons Carry Licenses pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court of GA declaring a Judicial Emergency.
So now you get the idea. Georgia requires its law-abiding citizens to have a Weapons Carry License, which is issued by your respective county probate court. As of March 14, 2020, the probate courts have suspended most operations, including weapons licensing. That emergency order has now been extended by Governor Kemp to at least May 13, 2020, as of Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Because Georgia does not provide for the option of openly carrying a sidearm without that weapons carry license, well pardner, you’re just plain old s**t out of luck.
The Governor has been asked by Georgia Carry to suspend the licensing and renewal requirements during the health emergency. He has responded that his office is looking into the legality of such a move but has not been heard from since.
[ … ]
The bottom line? The permitting scheme has outlived its usefulness. It’s time to move on. I shouldn’t need a stinking permit to carry a gun in the first place, and if this whole debacle doesn’t scream why constitutional carry should be the law of the land, nothing does.
Similar to South Carolina, governor McMaster has said he supports constitutional carry, but for some odd reason, it never makes it out of committee.
Oh, and by the way, the only “usefulness” to a permitting scheme for a God-given right is to serve the evil one.
On April 9, 2020 at 6:13 am, Arthur Sido said:
Too many people think it is still 2000 and the south is solidly conservative. They seem to have missed the massive demographic shifts that have taken place. One will often hear Texans declare that their state will always be a conservative, gun friendly state and are in for a rude shock when Texas flips blue in 2024. We have been busy fighting skirmishes while losing the demographic war to the Left and their victory is just about complete.
On April 9, 2020 at 8:51 am, X said:
Historically, most of the Southern states were NOT “gun friendly” with regard to CCW. Unlike New York City, they allowed pretty much unrestricted ownership of guns on private property and in private vehicles, but, like New York City, permits to carry were discretionary and given only to people with “connections” to the political establishment. Part of the reason was to keep Negroes disarmed in public during segregation.
A crucial difference was that in New York it was (and still is) a FELONY to carry without a permit, but in nearly all of the Southern states it was only a misdemeanor. Consequently, whites who did not have the political connections to get a carry permit and could afford to pay a fine if they got caught would carry “Saturday Night Specials,” cheap, “disposable” guns they would carry without a permit when they thought they might need to defend themselves — but could easily afford to lose, as the gun would be confiscated by the cops if they were ever caught carrying it.
This was an unwritten way of life in many states until the 1980s or so. We tend to forget that the NRA’s biggest success in the past fifty years has been the widespread proliferation of shall-issue CCW laws. Ohio, for instance, which is considered a VERY good “gun rights” state today, had NO provision for CCW permits at all until the early 2000s. State law only allowed you to carry if you believed your life was in immediate danger, but for practical purposes anyone caught carrying would automatically face a misdemeanor arrest and then have to convince a judge to dismiss the charge.
Prior to shall-issue, Southern states like Virginia and Florida and Texas used to automatically deny “ordinary” people CCW privileges, but state law allowed people to possess loaded handguns in vehicles. Thus, if your truck got stolen, your gun got stolen with it.
The big turning point was the Killeen, TX massacre in the 1980s, when Suzanna Gratia-Hupp had a gun in the glovebox of her car but was prohibited from carrying it concealed in the restaurant when a nutjob came in and murdered 20 people — including her parents.
On April 9, 2020 at 5:12 pm, Jack said:
No place is or ever shall be safe from Communists or there sympathizers.
Whats worse, we allow them to operate openly and freely.
The only good communist and there ilk are …. communists and there hangers on.
Imho of course.
On April 10, 2020 at 3:45 pm, jakethesnake said:
FWIW….
I’m a resident of Fulton county GA and my wife renewed her CWL on March 4.
I loving laughed and told her not to hold her breath on getting the renewal license any time soon. I told her to carry her expired CWL and county renewal receipts while still carrying her pistol. I know it’s a bit of a risk to still carry, but I doubt (maybe foolishly) that a cop is going to hassle her with her documentation while she waits.
Welp, color me surprised…..renewed CWL arrived in the mail YESTERDAY, 4/9!!!
Do the math……that’s less than 45 days for a notoriously slow county gov’t, plus, during the Coronapolcalypse, aka Wuhan-Kung Flu-CCP virus.
We’re still going to move back to the country when the time is right.
Anyway, to my fellow Georgians, YMMV.
Let’s get back to work!
Semper Fi,
Jake The Snake
On April 10, 2020 at 4:17 pm, Fred said:
Mr. Snake, in TN that’s the law. An expired permit and receipt are good for carry until receipt of the new permit in the mail. But it only takes about a week to get the permit especially a renewal. I had no idea GA gun permit laws were so awful.