Speaker Ralston: No Changes To “Campus Carry” Bill
Speaker Ralston said in an interview with WABE the House will not make any changes to the “Campus Carry” bill passed out of the General Assembly on March 11th. Governor Deal issued a statement soon after the bill’s passage signaling he wants lawmakers to exempt on-campus child care centers and to address his concerns about high school students enrolled in college courses on campuses that permit firearms.
Whispers of potential action by the General Assembly have swirled around since Governor Deal’s statement. Speaker Ralston said in the interview:
If you start trying to pick at the threads of some of these things, sometimes you can end up gutting the entire intent of the law, and I’m not going to ask this House of Representatives to do that
Despite the Speaker’s unwillingness to tweak the bill, Governor Deal has not indicated whether or not he will veto the legislation.
Note: You can hear the interview with WABE’s Denis O’Hayer tomorrow morning on WABE.
Note: We originally reported that Johnny Kauffman did the interview with the Speaker. We regret the error and blame others.
About Author
Will Kremer
Will is an active member of the Georgia Republican grassroots. He previously served as Chairman of the Georgia Association of College Republicans, 2nd Vice Chairman of the 7th District Republican Party, and Treasurer of the Forsyth County Republican Party. Promise Land = Forsyth County.
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Nor should there be any changes. The closer we get to “Constitutional Carry” the better off we are.
Can you carry in the Capitol?
The Capitol is almost always excluded from 2nd Amendment legislation. I’m sure forest leprechauns steal the words from all legislation expanding conceal carry.
Next year? Baby step. Just the legislators initially. Lobbyists receive an exemption on supplying them free ammo.
There are locations where the government has a compelling interest to be in complete control of weapons. Jails are the best example. If government makes that determination, then it should be serious and effective at implementing that decision. The location must be protected and secured with POST certified screening and armed security through out the building. They do that with the Capitol (they even have fancy black rifles).
The Regents are arguing that campuses should be gun free while doing absolutely nothing to make sure its weapons free. Gun Free signs, Board of Regent’s rules, and another law that a criminal will break, is nothing.
That is what this fight is about. The Capital is protected and secured with real protection. Our campuses are not. Where the government hasn’t stepped up to protect the citizens, then the citizens have the right and duty to protect themselves.
BTW … I’m surprised nobody has noticed that Gov. Deal is demanding the General Assembly to enact Gun-C0ntrol. That seems to me to be a big policy change from a candidate who says he’s for the Second Amendment (that’s the one that says “shall not be infringed”).
If the Capitol is so well protected it seems like the first place we should be able to carry, no?
In that regard, UGAPD has 90-100 sworn officers, so if you are being generous 25-30 officers per shift to patrol a small city with about 35,000 folks in it during the day. I’d guess that’s a much higher ratio than most cities. However, campus is still a pretty soft target for a gun(wo)man.
This all reminds me of the time I got into an argument with one of my professors in grad school about this subject. He was upset at the possibility of students carrying guns, but actually calmed down a lot when I said it would mostly be seniors that were able to carry. I think freshmen with guns scared the crap out of him.
Now that I’ve typed that out, I guess you’d have to have been there to think it was amusing.
Campus carry bill prohibits dorm carry. Additionally many students don’t live on campus thus they walk to and from parking areas, public transit and in some cases students walk from off- campus residences to on-campus classes. Campus visitors, staff and individuals passing through a campus would also be able to carry if licensed.
No, but you should be able to.
I’m still a little miffed about the change to churches having to opt to allow carry as opposed to it being OK by default. I’m sure he’ll sign it though. Above all the noise, he knows the right thing to do. That whole campus daycare thing is a flimsy excuse.
I guess the two shooters on the Ga. State Campus last night were unaware that campus carry is still illegal but of course, criminals don’t adhere to the law.
i think urban campuses like State and Tech have a different set of circumstances, too, because so much of their campuses are public streets.
@Andrew C. Pope – “It’s a little disingenuous to say that the BoR is “doing absolutely nothing.” After all, universities have police departments that are armed and capable of enforcing the weapons ban.”
There has never been a police department in the history of our country that ever had a chance at being effective at enforcing a weapons ban for the simple reason criminals just don’ care.
I feel like there is this general feeling w/ the “carry lobby” that if everyone is carrying then everyone will be safe. Am I wrong to think that’s the desired outcome? I’m guessing the money behind the lobby would be on board with that notion.
But by that same regard, should we be assisting every other nation in building nuclear weapons? I mean, if we all have them, then we aren’t likely to use them right?
No, it’s not “everyone” because in order to obtain a carry license in Ga., you undergo a background check. In regards to other countries and nuclear weapons, many of those countries would not pass a “background check.”
So if you don’t pass a background check, you can’t get a carry license. But you said a few comments ago that the criminals with weapons on GSU campus probably wouldn’t have passed the background check, and yet, they still had guns.
My assertion is that if the criminals have guns, then the lobby would want all “non-criminals” to have guns, a carry license, and free reign to go anywhere. So using binary logic, “everyone” would have guns.
Sure N Korea shouldn’t have nukes, but they probably will anyways. Should we encourage S Korea to nuke up too? Would the world be safer if that were the case?
Those GSU shooters violated the law by possessing guns on-campus, doing a drug dealer and then shooting each other so obviously did not care about the law to begin with.
I am not part of the ” lobby” and I do agree with most current restrictions on possession and carry.
As for S. Korea, I don’t know that tactical nukes are not in S. Korea. Either way, nukes can be delivered anywhere these days with or w/o basing them in a particular country so that question is mostly moot.
The students were also under 21, thus wouldn’t have been eligible for a carry license and were carrying in violation of many state and federal gun control laws. Did Gun Control work? Isn’t this proof that the Chancellor Huckaby and the University System are lying when they say our campuses are free of crime and students should be stripped of their ability to defend themselves?
Gun Control will never work because it only regulates the people who follow the law. We should stop criminalizing the law abiding, which is what gun control does and what gun-banners want.
Not everyone will be able to carry. In Georgia, little over 10% of the adults over 18 years old have carry licenses. Its not everyone but its enough to deter crime and respond to it when it occurs. It won’t be a perfect solution and mistakes will be made, but on the whole the state is safer with an armed populace.
The infamous gun lobby (aka GeorgiaCarry.Org) would say that if you have a license you should be able to carry everywhere, just like the hundreds of thousands of government employees that are exempted from the law via OCGA 16-11-130.
There is zero reason to fear people who submit themselves to a local judge for examination, who take time off from work to get a license, who pay nearly $100, who get fingerprinted, whose identity is run through multiple government databases, and who surrender their medical privacy rights. Governor Deal’s argument that the people who do all that are a danger to children is insulting and detached from reality and logic.
@Jack Fitz I feel like there is this general feeling w/ the “carry lobby” that if everyone is carrying then everyone will be safe.
No, that isn’t the sentiment. The goal for the “carry lobby” is “Constitutional Carry”, just like that liberal hellhole Vermont has – open or concealed carry, 24/7/365, no permit required.