Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Georgia County Commission Bans Guns

Local news reports

Glynn County’s politically conservative commissioners generally support gun rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
But they disagree with a law that Georgia’s General Assembly adopted that gave residents the right to carry firearms into government buildings. The County Commission decided that the law, which went into effect July 1, goes too far and has banned guns at the Historic Courthouse during its bi-monthly meetings.
“I don’t want people to carry guns into our meetings,” Commission Chairman Michael Browning said. “I may be a little older, but I can still duck pretty fast. But it’s not about me. We have to protect the people.”
The gun ban went into effect last month and now the commission will have to decide how far it wants it to reach. Currently, it only applies to the commission’s regular meetings but could be extended to cover periodic work sessions or even to prohibit guns at all times in all county buildings.
Strickland emphasized that the commission was not trying to make a political statement by initiating the ban.
“I’m a big proponent of the Second Amendment right to bear arms,” he said, “but it has become a safety issue. Our top priority is the safety of the public, our staff and the commissioners.”

5 comments:

  1. The county commission is banning guns? You mean they are going around confiscating all the guns in the county and forbidding any new acquisitions? Because if I use that word in any other context, I get an earful from you.

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    1. Nice dodge. The post is about the hypocrisy of their decision to PROHIBIT guns at their meetings.

      It also could cause one to question their claim that more guns in the society is a good thing. Maybe they really know better.

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  2. If their top priority is public safety, they should ban guns as far as their authority goes. Why limit their concerns to one building?

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  3. Darn, my original comment here didn't make it so I'll try to repeat it to the best of my ability.

    "Currently, it only applies to the commission’s regular meetings but could be extended to cover periodic work sessions or even to prohibit guns at all times in all county buildings."

    Since Georgia has a preemption law, it should only as far as the courtroom. You would think that the county would have an attorney hanging around somewhere to advise them on these details.
    Florida had similar issues with their preemption law and lasted up until they mandated large fines against jurisdictions that violated it. The Minnesota League of Cities has tried to get in the past to have the carry law changed to allow cities to prohibit carry on public property as is allowed on private property, unsuccessfully I might add. And it looks like they'll be trying again this year.
    However its hard to justify such a change when there hasn't really been any problems.

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    1. Just like it's hard to justify voter ID laws because there hasn't been any voter fraud of any consequence. .

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