by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder
April 7, 2022
What we need, apparently, are more guns. More guns, bigger guns, in more hands, cars, homes, purses, pockets and plenty of other places.
More more more. Always more; certainly never less.
After all, we’ve been told for decades that more guns make us safer, that an armed society is a polite society. Over those decades, we’ve pursued that theory with an impressive fervor, loosening gun laws, making guns more easily available and visible. In the United States alone, some 19 million firearms were sold in 2022, which means that in just one year, private citizens in this country bought more guns than most militaries possess in all their armories.
So … do you feel safer yet? Is our increasingly armed society becoming an increasingly polite society?
No?
Then the only logical conclusion to be drawn is that still more guns are needed.
The Georgia General Assembly is trying its damnedest to make that happen. It’s an election year, and every election year another gun-safety law must be dragged out into the public square and executed as a ritual sacrifice to the Cult of The Second Amendment. A few years ago, the ban on weapons on college campuses was abolished. This year, it was Georgia’s long-standing concealed-carry laws, which require a background check and approval from a probate judge before a permit to carry is issued.
Under SB 319, which Gov. Brian Kemp will soon sign into law and proclaim as one of his proudest achievements, such permits will no longer be necessary. Anyone can carry a weapon almost anywhere.
The gun lobby calls this concept “constitutional carry,” but there’s nothing “constitutional” about it. It’s a marketing slogan, not a legal description. If concealed-carry permits were unconstitutional, you couldn’t pass a state law to implement them, and you wouldn’t need a state law to abolish them. It’s also important to point out that until recently, gun cultists would brag about how effective the permit system had been in keeping concealed weapons out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. They endorsed and defended the system, until they began to run out of gun laws to abolish as proof of their fanaticism. Now it too is gone.
It’s also interesting to dig into the details of SB 319, at the hypocrisies and distortions and plain insanities it creates.
Under SB 319, for example, it will still be illegal to possess fireworks, bows and arrows, air rifles or slingshots in Georgia parks and historic sites, because those things could hurt folks. However, you can walk around with an assault rifle and no one can say or do a damn thing.
Technically, SB 319 would still prohibit felons from carrying weapons, either openly or concealed. But that ban is meaningless, because under SB 319 police officers will be forbidden to check whether someone carrying a weapon has the legal right to do so. That’s right – they made the law unenforceable.
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
Until now, you couldn’t walk around in a hunting area with a hunting rifle when hunting season was closed, because the presumption has been that you were probably intending to poach. Now that sensible provision has been gutted as well.
And of course, under SB 319 you will no longer need a carry permit to have a loaded weapon within reach in your vehicle. That means more guns in more cars, more guns to be stolen from cars by criminals, more road-rage shootouts, more accidental shootings, and probably more dead police officers and more dead motorists killed by police officers.
Do you feel safer now, Georgia?
During debate over the bill, pro-gun cultists took offense at the notion that the rise in gun-related murders and assaults has any link to the easy availability of guns. Remember, guns reduce violence; guns make you safer.
“Let’s stop blaming an inanimate object,” as state Sen. Randy Robertson, a Columbus Republican, put it. “I’ll tell you why violent crime is up. It’s because mothers, fathers, churches, educational institutions and others have abandoned their responsibility to raise responsible adults.”
It is of course true that a gun is an inanimate object, but that’s not how the gun cultists treat it. They have turned that inanimate piece of steel into a fetish object, believing the gun to be the source of their liberty, their pride, their political power, their manhood. And the only way for the rest of us to restore some sanity and balance to the situation is at the ballot box.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
Felons carries a gun now I can too notice a
Well let’s be like California because they never have mass shootings. Let’s restrict law abiding citizens from carrying and let all the criminals and crazy’s still carry. Law abiding citizens are not the ones to worry about and have never been. So leave us alone and let us carry and keep you safe when someone does decide to shoot you the place.
Your a liberal *******. Your dam right I feel safer with constitutional carry being signed into law. The second amendment says the right to keep and bear arm shall not be infringed. An arm population is not only to protect one’s self, others, property it’s also to oust a tyrannical government if needed. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun and hope the good guy has better aim. It’s is also better to have a gun and not need it then to need it and not have it. You can wait on the cops to come but by the time you even dial 911 your going to be dead. I do believe that if a law abiding citizen has a gun they should educate themselves on the laws regarding the use of deadly force. So how about we educate the public instead of infringing on their rights.
I am saddened to hear such a skewed view and some items lacking factual information. Do we feel safer knowing that a criminal can’t buy guns in a store? The answer is still no since criminals but guns off of others, not stores. To view thos from a responsible gun owner, with the understanding that in any situation, you will have a number of armed individuals (mostly concealed). So, yes, I feel safer. Responsible gun owners don’t leave their guns where a thief can find them, they keep them in a lockbox, safe or cabinet when not in use. Will there be careless gun owners, always, but through education and training, we can seek a better future.
James Warner | April 7, 2022 at 10:57 am | Reply
Your a liberal *******. Your dam right I feel safer with constitutional carry being signed into law. The second amendment says the right to keep and bear arm shall not be infringed. An arm population is not only to protect one’s self, others, property it’s also to oust a tyrannical government if needed. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun and hope the good guy has better aim. It’s is also better to have a gun and not need it then to need it and not have it. You can wait on the cops to come but by the time you even dial 911 your going to be dead. I do believe that if a law abiding citizen has a gun they should educate themselves on the laws regarding the use of deadly force. So how about we educate the public instead of infringing on their rights.
I believe in the above. No-where it is written in our Constitution that Americans should be charged a fee, for a license to carry. If our for-farther’s had to go through this BS America would had never been free from Englands control.
And as Americans aged, became more advanced in machinery, to create a wonder of steel and wood that could be used better in defending one’s self and there families.
I believe a once proud American President once said, “ From my cold dead hands”.
Oh I sure do feel safer!! Citzens have a right to carry arms. To protect our families, our homes & our communities. I think that there would be a lot less mass shooting!!
Jay Bookman, you’ve said your piece, as nonsensical as it is.
Your hysterical, cringe-worthy recitation of your justifications for your pitiful lack of courage or self-responsibity demonstrate your lack of grasp what it means to be a citizen rather than a socialist lackey.
Lenin had a name for people like you:
Useful Idiot.
Criminals have been waiting on this law to get signed, because if there is one thing criminals love, it’s laws.
Jay Bookman has never been particularly bright and this bit of drivel is just another example. If he had done a couple of minutes worth of research before throwing his emotional temper tantrum, he would have found that there was no statistical difference in firearm deaths or police deaths and a slight reduction in violent crime in states that have already implemented constitutional carry.
https://crimeresearch.org/2022/01/changes-in-crime-and-killings-of-police-after-constitutional-carry-adopted/
Why do Police unions and law enforcement organizations fight against these open carry laws? It puts them further in harms way. Just as it does the rest of us.
The author is clearly both far too emotionally involved, and woefully uninformed about Georgia law. Multiple swear words in an article, even an opinion piece, is unprofessional.
The author also mentioned that now, because of the new law, cops can no longer arbitrarily stop gun carriers and demand to see their permits. The problem with this is that cops could NEVER demand to see a carry permit, thanks to a pesky thing called the 4th amendment. But hey, what do I know compared to an author, having only been a POST certified police officer for almost 10 years now?
Secondly, the author seems to believe that this law somehow allows Georgia citizens more freedom to have a loaded firearm within reach inside of their vehicles; Georgia citizens, who aren’t prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms, could ALWAYS carry loaded guns inside their cars, at least as long as I’ve been in law enforcement. Do your research, and stop swearing, if you want to be taken seriously.
Totaly wrong article from another liberal clueless “author”
Criminals do not attempt to get permits, nor do they attempt to fill out the paperwork requiring a background check for a legitimate firearm purchase.
They steal the majority of the firearms they have or buy from the one who stole them. If they abided by the law they would not be a criminal…
Should responsible owners continually get training to stay competent and proficient ? Absolutely.
Should those same owners make every effort to make it more difficult for that criminal to steal that weapon from their car, office , or home? Absolutely!
Should they secure them away from young children? Absolutely.
Should they educate older children about the reality of those firearms are as opposed to what they are taught by hollyweed and games ? (Not to mention ignorant “authors”) Remove the mystical allure? Absolutely!
Do I feel safer knowing millions more law abiding citizens have the capacity to protect themselves and their families from those same criminals. Absolutely!!!!
How dare we choose to no longer be victims!
When it is your wife or daughter being accosted in the mall parking lot, who do you prefer comes along? Me the trained armed citizen or the guy with your attitude toward the reality of today’s failed systems?
The only ones actually not safer are the criminals you so lovingly worry about getting their “feelings” hurt.
I agree with Tim!
YES, i feel safer with the government having less control over my life in any aspects.
Fact is the constitution doesn’t say one word about abortion but liberals made it a right to murder babies for votes. Also there is no mention about back ground checks to exercise the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. The left would disarm all law abiding citizens if it could,while being soft on violent crimes and criminals.
Permits do not stop bad guys from having a gun only law abiding citizens. I feel safer with a gun.
The Truth is, ALL People SHOULD be Proficient in Firearms! The Problem is Training, and Fear in Most People! EVERY County SHOULD Offer a Training Venue, or Place to Prepare People what to do, if Someone is in the Wrong, and Accost You! If a Criminal knows Someone has a Gun They are going would Deter Them! If Mentally ILL, It wouldn’t matter!
For the record, cops couldn’t stop you to check for a weapons license just because you had a fun to begin with, they need reasonable articulate suspicion that you DONT have a license to be able to check.
It falls under your 4th amendment rights to unreasonable searches and your right to remain innocent until proven guilty.
Fact: Since 1996 when Australia banned most firearms, there have been exactly ZERO mass shootings there. In the US there have already been 99 mass shooting in this year alone. Doesn’t sound like “more guns” or “easier to get guns” are the answer. They are the cause.
You, sir, with all due respect are an eejit. That’s all.