Proponents and opponents of expanded gun rights in Georgia agree on this much: The legislation that may pass the General Assembly today would likely be considered the most comprehensive loosening of gun restrictions in America. So says even the National Rifle Association, and they should know.
House Bill 60 is back where it started, in the lower chamber, after the Senate passed its version Tuesday night. Lawmakers have until midnight tonight to pass the law. Most observers expect a conference committee of House and Senate members to settle on a bill that would pass both chambers.
The most celebrated/notorious components of the bill in its current form would allow licensed gun carriers to carry weapons into bars, and into churches that choose to allow firearms. It would also train school personnel to have them. Convicted felons would be allowed to ‘stand their ground’ with weapons, even though it is illegal for them to own guns. And licensed gun owners could take their weapons into government buildings that don’t have security guards.
The idea, of course, is that those with violent or other criminal intent would be more often deterred from their crimes if they knew of the possibility that law-abiding people on the premises might be armed. Some activists and lobbyists for the bill have given the issue the interesting twist that allowing more legal gun carriers to carry weapons in more places would be an advancement of ‘civil rights’ for all, but especially for minorities and others in high-crime areas.
Naturally, advocates for expanded gun rights produce statistics and studies that show more legal guns means less crime and fewer deaths of innocent people. Just as predictability, gun-rights opponents cite their own numbers to show that more legal guns would actually cost lives.
We honestly don’t know what the net effects would be. And if the legislation is “the most comprehensive in recent state history” – unprecedented, in other words — we don’t know how anyone can know for certain. The law of unintended consequences looms.
What we do know is that passage of this bill has more political risk than upside for the GOP. There is no groundswell of insistence to pass this into law by Georgians. And women – the voter demographic most likely to decide the governor’s race and other statewide elections this fall – are overwhelmingly against laws like these.
We can picture Democratic campaign ads this fall talking about this legislation, if it passes. We have more trouble imagining GOP commercials bragging about it.
