GA: Governor Deal Signs Gun Reform Law on 12 May

Gun Watch ^ | 16 May, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Governor Deal signed the gun law reform bill, HB 492(pdf), into law on Tuesday the 12th of May, 2015.  The law is one of a multitude of gun law reforms sweeping the nation since President Obama took office.    Some laws, such as the  constitutional carry law passed in Kansas this year, offer sweeping restoration of second amendment rights that have been slowly infringed on over the last century.  Others offer more incremental change.

HB 492 is one of the latter.  It cleans up some language from previous bills, and makes some small improvements.  From georgiacarry.org:

1) Clarifies that government buildings are off limits only to those who do not hold a valid GWL

2) Clarifies that carrying within 150′ of a polling place is off limits  ONLY when an election is taking place.

3) Clarifies that the Probate Judge cannot require a fingerprint background check when the holder has a valid GWL, regardless of the county the GWL was issued.  (The Judges were requiring a background check for any license that was not originally issued in their county.  This practice will stop upon this bill being signed and the effective date reached.)

4) Allows for school systems to decide punishment for any weapon carried to school by a student with the exception of firearms, dangerous weapons or machine guns or unless weapons defined as such in 16-11-127.1 are used in an assault.

5) Sets the date a GWL can be renewed to 90 days before and 30 days after expiration. The license can be renewed anytime during that 4 months.

6) Defined “Armed Forces” for the purpose of 16-11-129.

7) Sets the procedure for a State or Superior Court to notify the Probate Court when a GWL holder is convicted of any crime that would disqualify the holder from holding a license.

8) Requires the Probate Court to notify GCIC immediately or no later than to days of any license holder who is involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

9) Clarifies the procedure for the State or Superior Courts to determine the validity of a GWL.

10) Added “political subdivision and school district” to the list of those who cannot institute gun control laws.

11) Changed the definition of weapon in 16-11-173 from the same meaning in 16-11-127.1 to “means any device designed or intended to be used, or capable of being used, for offense or defense, including but not limited to firearms, bladed devices, clubs, electric stun devices, and defense sprays.”

Rolling back decades of infringements on the second amendment takes time.  It took almost 40 years to bring concealed carry to every state across the nation, and there are still several who flout the second amendment by issuing only a tiny number of permits, mostly to the politically connected, such as judges, former policemen, and the wealthy.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Supporters of the second amendment are making progress in many states.

[Codeflier]

Deal is a big government tax and spender. Horrible Governor.

[Red_Devil 232]

I am not familiar GWL, is it Georgia Weapon License?

[marktwain]

I presume that is what it stands for.

[imardmd1]

'GWL' as used here does not seem to be in the PDF file of the Act, nor a contraction of any terminology in the text of the Act. The only term that seems to relate to this is 'weapons carry license.'

Whatever that means.

And who are all the fat women surrounding the governor in the photo? NRA representatives? /s

[Oatka]

And in the meantime, Bloomberg et al are getting gun registration passed in the Western states. Washington and now Oregon have gone under. Nevada and Arizona are up for a vote in 2016.

All this high-fiving and self-congratulation will mean nothing if we can’t stop national gun registration from being implemented by a state-by-state approach.

Support you local gun orgs with bucks to fight this and perhaps even bestir yourselves and volunteer.

[Georgia Girl 2]

You got that right. Nathan Deal is a card carrying RINO corruptocrat. Just so everybody knows Nathan Deal was instrumental in watering down the original bill or it would be even better. I can’t wait to get him out of office.

[bravo whiskey]

Just curious is that can’t open or conceal carry at a poling place?
I was an election judge in CO and concealed carry every day for the 2 weeks leading up to election day.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Clarifies that government buildings are off limits only to those who do not hold a valid GWL””

I do not hold a valid GWL (whatever that stands for) so this means I’m not allowed in a government building?

Surely there must be SOMEONE who could write a better clarification than that.....

[marktwain]

Yes, surprisingly, a number of states have prohibitions on the carry of arms at polling places.

In the early colonies, it was sometimes required.

[jaydee770]

You are correct. GWL is the “Georgia Weapons License”.

For my Probate court it was as simple as filling out the form, an $80 fee and fingerprints. You get the license in 10 business days or less. Mine took about six. There are no training hoops to jump through, it is simply a criminal background check. Good for 5 years and you only need to get fingerprinted the first time.

This is not just a concealed firearms license — it is a “weapons” license that covers all defined weapons (firearms, all manner of fixed/folding bladed weapons regardless of blade length or opening mechanism, pepper/cs sprays, impact, stun guns, etc, etc, etc).