The 2018 legislative session officially kicks off on January 8th, but on Wednesday the window for prefiling legislation opened, giving ambitious legislators an opportunity to get out ahead of the game and let the public see what issues they want to push.
State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D) has been the busiest member of the legislature thus far, filing a pair of bills addressing the issues of gun control and Confederate monuments, two highly topical issues that have been in the national spotlight in recent months.
House Bill 650 seeks to give local governments the ability to “relocate, remove, conceal, obscure, or alter certain monuments,” essentially allowing cities to remove Confederate monuments as they see fit. Currently Georgia code makes it illegal to remove any Confederate statues or monuments, per a statute implemented in 2001 as part of the agreement to change the state flag. Cities such as Atlanta have pondered the steps needed to move the monuments, but without action taken under the Gold Dome from this bill or one similar, that ability is limited.
Senate Bill 302, prefiled by Senator Elena Parent, another Democrat, has nearly identical language and will serve as the upper chamber’s version of HB 650. Republicans statewide have been nearly unanimous in their unwillingness to remove Confederate monuments, so it would be surprising to see either bill gain much traction. By filing early though the Democrats pay some lip service to their constituents, for whom removing the monuments has been a major issue. With Democratic candidate for Governor Stacey Abrams going so far as to recommend sandblasting the famous carving of Southern Civil War Generals at Stone Mountain, it’s clearly a fight that the left isn’t going to give up on, even if the GOP keeps that door shut for now.
Oliver also prefiled House Bill 651, which would make bump fire stocks, an add-on to rifles that can make them fire faster than normal, illegal in to purchase or possess. Infamously used by Stephen Paddock in the October shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 dead, bump stocks are normally used just as a gimmick to make a gun fire faster while losing accuracy. Following the shooting many legislators in Washington pushed for restrictions on bump stocks and similar devices, but talk of such limitations have died down as the powerful 2nd amendment advocacy groups circled the wagons and pushed back on any new regulations on firearms.
It will be interesting to see how Georgia’s legislature, in the past a bit iffy on issues such as campus carry, responds to the measure. Oliver told reporters that she believed “this legislation will see bipartisan support,” but critics aren’t so sure. Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams promised to oppose the bill, saying in no uncertain terms that he would “make all Democrats think twice before attempting to take away gun rights from Georgia citizens.”
Typically 10-20 bills are prefiled each year before the start of session, so check back for more updates as new legislation comes in.
