Vehemently opposed by Georgia law enforcement officials, county commissioners and the TSA, the Safe Carry Protection Act will go into effect July 1, 2014.
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When someone goes on a murderous shooting rampage, anti-gun activists say it could have been avoided if guns weren’t available for purchase.
Pro-gun activists, however, believe it could have been avoided if other people at the scene were allowed to have guns on them and had shot the assailant like a hero in an action movie.
The latter set of reasoning seems to have been the basis of a new law in Georgia permitting gun owners to bring their weapons just about anywhere.
According to CNN, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a bill into law yesterday allowing Georgia residents who have permits to carry concealed weapons to take guns into bars, churches, school zones, airports and even some government buildings.
Vehemently opposed by Georgia law enforcement officials, county commissioners and the TSA, the Safe Carry Protection Act will go into effect July 1, 2014.
The bill was signed in front of hundreds of people at a picnic area following a prayer, the singing of the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance.
Deal said the law protects the “constitutional rights” of those who have gone through background checks to obtain a Georgia Weapons Carry License.
“Roughly 500,000 Georgia citizens have a permit of this kind, which is approximately 5 percent of our population. License holders have passed background checks and are in good standing with the law. This law gives added protections to those who have played by the rules — and who can protect themselves and others from those who don’t play by the rules,” he said.
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The bill gives the owners of churches and bars the ability to decide whether guests can carry guns in their establishments. The punishment for bringing a gun into a church that prohibits guns is a fine of up to $100.
The bill gives school districts the option of allowing their security guards to carry guns and permits guns at almost every part of an airport before the security checkpoint.
And even if someone is caught with a gun at these checkpoints, he or she can simply leave the airport without being arrested.
Guns are also allowed in any government building that doesn’t have security guards screening visitors.
Arguably the most terrifying provision, however, is that it legally forbids a police officer from asking someone visibly brandishing a gun to see a permit unless that person is committing a crime.
Nicknamed the “Guns Everywhere Bill,” licensed gun owners in Georgia can now carry guns in more places than anyone in America has ever been able to in the past century.
Much of the state’s police and church community believe Deal as well as many lawmakers were paid to pass the bill by the National Rifle Association, an act that is not criminalized in this free country of ours.
The Reverend Raphael Warnock of Georgia’s Ebenezer Baptist Church said many more would have died in the Sandy Hook shootings “had everyone been packing that day.”
“The message of today’s bill signing is very clear: Our politicians, tragically, are owned by the gun lobby. I don’t know of a single pastor in the state of Georgia who has been lobbying to have guns brought into their churches. When we say pass the peace, we mean P-E-A-C-E, not the P-I-E-C-E.”
The NRA is the primary reason we haven’t seen any dramatic changes in gun laws since Sandy Hook.
There are no laws preventing the organization from paying lawmakers millions to vote on a bill and the chances of that changing anytime soon have been diminished greatly thanks to the passing of the Safe Carry Protection Act, yet another example of greed overpowering public interest.
This post originally appeared at Elite Daily. Reprinted with permission.
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SEAN LEVINSON Sean Levinson loves writing almost as much as he loves ranting about politics. Elite Daily lets him do both, and he couldn’t be happier now that he’s finally putting his years at SUNY New Paltz to good use. When he’s not writing, Sean enjoys nature excursions, playing the guitar and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Look for him on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where he regularly appears in his most precious fantasies.
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Photo: M Glasgow/AP