Sonny Perdue takes Georgia to the Old West with gun law
May 15, 2008 at 9:19 am by Scott Freeman in NewsGov. Sonny Perdue signed legislation yesterday that takes Georgia back to the days of the wild, wild west. Registered gun owners here can now take their weapons into public places, such as restaurants and MARTA and parks.
Perdue’s spin is that the issue is headed to the courts regardless, and that it’s better to get it over with than to do a veto and have the General Assembly waste time next year squabbling over the issue all over again.
But that doesn’t satisfy critics, which include the parents of Professor Jamie Bishop, one of the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech massacre of April 16, 2007. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.
Michael and Jeri Bishop released a letter to Perdue this morning that takes the governor to task for signing the bill into law.
“How … could you possibly allow this bill — this unholy tangle of venomous snakes — to wriggle its way into law?” write Michael and Jeri Bishop.
Read their full statement after the jump.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Governor Perdue,
My wife Jeri and I have long feared that you would allow a small minority of vocal Georgians (and well-financed out-of-staters with a single-issue agenda) to prevail over the legitimate wishes of the vast majority of your fellow citizens, who know that HB 89 is a bad bill and that as law it is likely to have bad consequences. But we still hope that you will listen, heed the sensible voices advising you, and act accordingly.
After all, recently you declined to endorse a referendum allowing Georgians to decide whether to buy alcohol on Sundays in part because it held the unacceptable promise of increasing every year the number of alcohol-related fatalities in our state.
How, then, we reasoned, could you decide either to sign HB 89 along with a great many other bills (apparently to deflect attention from your failure to act against HB 89 for the good of all our citizens), or to allow it to become law by doing nothing whatever, an even more egregious and shameful abdication of responsibility?
Further, you clearly have considered all the implications of HB 89: the ambiguous language in which it is couched, the near certainty of court challenges, and the number of honorable persons who regard it with dismay and/or horror: police chiefs, business persons, public transport officials and workers, children’s rights advocates, parent-teacher organizations, human rights groups, etc. How, then, we wondered, could you possibly allow this bill—this unholy tangle of venomous snakes—to wriggle its way into law?
We lost our son at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, to gun violence, because of an oversight in Virginia law, and yet we still have a gun-show loophole in Georgia law that could easily allow something like this to occur here. How, then, could you allow HB 89 to become law before doing something to repair this flaw in our own state’s gun code?
Please, Governor Perdue, in your final term as governor, act on behalf of a majority of Georgia citizens and not on that of the uncompromising but vociferous minority that is rushing us to adopt perniciously bad policy.
Please, sir, heed the anguished voices of reason and don’t suppose that either signing this bill or allowing it to become law without your signature is an act of no real import. It means profoundly, and a bad decision here will echo long past the instant of political expediency, indifference, or poor judgment that has apparently occasioned it.
Sincerely,
Michael and Jeri Bishop
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May 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
That kid would have carried that gun onto the VT campus regardless of whether it was legal to do so or not. Had it been legal then he probably wouldn’t have been the only person on campus with a gun and someone may have been able to stop him before he killed too many.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I have the greatest of sympathy for and extend my most sincere condolences to the Bishops. What happened to their son should not have happened. However, the passage of HB89 has absolutely no impact on what happened at Virginia Tech and its veto would in no way have prevented a similar tragedy from happening again.
First, HB89 does not address the gun show “loophole” and will not remove a single firearm from the hands of a single law-abiding citizen in Georgia. In fact, the passage of HB89 into law criminalizes purchasing a firearm for anyone else who would not qualify under the law to own one.
Second, HB89 does not lift an existing restriction under Georgia law regarding the carrying of firearms on college campuses. A veto would have done nothing to prevent a criminal from illegally carrying a firearm onto a college campus and putting it to murderous use.
Third, the majority of HB89 pertains only to law-abiding Georgia citizens who have subjected themselves to nontrivial scrutiny of their criminal and mental health backgrounds and convinced a Probate Court judge that they are of good moral character. Credible, objective statistics show that such individuals are far less likely to commit a gun crime than any other group — including law enforcement officers.
Fourth, the changes wrought by the passage of HB89 into law are incremental and minor. The media, including the author of this article, frequently cite that HB89 allows carrying of firearms into restaurants without mentioning that under current law, Georgial Firearms License holders already can carry into the 75-80% of Georgia’s restaurants which do not serve alcohol and that HB89 criminalizes consumption of alcohol while carrying a firearm.
Finally, this legislation is not the result of the efforts of a small number of vocal Georgians or well-funded “out-of-staters.” HB89 passed both chambers of the state legislature by 2-1 margins. Only Section 7 of HB89 (pertaining to empolyees, under some circumstances, being allowed to store firearms in their personal vehicles in company-owned parking lots) was sponsored by the NRA. The majority of HB89 was sponsored by the grassroots organization GeorgiaCarry.Org and supported by hundreds and thousands of Georgians.
This article shamelessly plays to the emotions surrounding the “guns” issue rather than to the actual facts surrounding or merits of HB89 and tarnishes the memory of a victim of gun violence who should be alive today.
Scott, in authoring this article you have overstepped the bounds of journalistic integrity and entered the realm of sensationalism. Shame on you.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
My heart goes out to the family but putting ones head in the sand will not remove the dangers of life. There are bad people out there who will by any means get weapons to kill. Disarming the good people only makes it easier for them to be killed. The coward who shot all those people choose a school because no one could fight back. What would have happened if he tried this at a gun range or other place where folks are armed. It would have been over in 30 seconds with far fewer dead. With no helpless sheep in the pasture the wolves will not come around.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Going back to the Old West is a good thing, in termns of civility, murder rates, violent crime and the way the VAST majority of citizens followed the law.
The impresion of the Old West is from Hollywood, not historical fact. The Old West was amazingly polite…. maybe because many people were armed, maybe not. BTW, the vast majority of peope in the Old West did not carry a gun. Surprised?
Yo9ur ignorance of history is equalled by your ignorance of guns, CCW permits and their impact on crime.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
The vast majority of citizens follow the law today, too.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
First, there is no such thing as a “gun show loophole.” The same laws apply at gun shows as apply to firearms sales anywhere else, namely:
-Any sale of a firearm by a licensed dealer must be recorded, and a background check must be run on the purchaser.
-Private individuals who are residents of the same state may sell firearms to other residents of the same state, provided there is no reason to believe the receiving party is ineligible to possess a firearm.
Private individuals who are residents of different states must transfer the gun through a licensed dealer, which means a background check must be made.
Second, thirty-seven other states allow licensed or otherwise-qualified citizens to carry firearms into restaurants. I have not heard of a single case where such a law-abiding citizen got drunk and lost control, resulting in a shooting. Anyone who is responsible enough learn about and go through the licensing process, and who makes the effort to understand the pertinent laws, is not a threat.
As another person has commented, you are more likely to be violently and unlawfully attacked by a police officer than you are by a citizen with a firearms license or carry permit. And if we really want to cut down on violent crimes, doesn’t it make more sense to figure out and solve the root causes of the crimes, instead of continually making more laws that only restrict people who have done (and will do) nothing wrong? Criminals scoff at gun laws. After all, they’re willing to commit assault, rape, and murder despite the penalties against them; the threat of a little jail time for a weapons charge means nothing to them.
Drunk drivers kill thousands of people every year (many more than are killed by drunk shooters). So where is the outrage? Where are the calls to ban cars and car keys from restaurants?
May 15th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Stop being pussies and just think. The people that would hurt you, are not the same as CCW permit holders. Sorry, I just think the whole country has a raging case of the “fags”. I is only natural to defend yourself.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Andisheh - duh, of course they do, I am just pointing out the lazy fallacy of returning “to the Old West days” which impies a reckless gunslinging in the streets and scares the crap out of people by invoking an incorrect stereotype of the past.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Oh, and for a publication which routinely pokes fun at other pubs for the pics they choose… nice pic of a gun that damned near no one carries for protection. CCW is about concealment and a S&W with an 8″ barrell (probaly a .50 cal for hunting), while not concealable, certainly looks MENACING in your pitiful little column….and so ignorance marches forward immune to facts, truth and accuracy…
May 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I could conceal that pistol. I’d walk like I had a wooden leg, but I could conceal it.
My point about law-abidingness then vs. now is I think you’re heaping undeserved praise on a violent century.
Incidentally, I have a permit and will likely take advantage of the law even though I have mixed feelings about it (expressed in an earlier post no one read or commented on, woe is me).
May 18th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Andisheh - I demand an apology for all of the people with wooden legs offended by your comment. They DO NO walk like they are carrying large concealed pistols, they walk like everyone else. the shame……
May 18th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I reject and denounce my comments.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am
+1 to latter_day_hippie’s comment.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
“Gov. Sonny Perdue signed legislation yesterday that takes Georgia back to the days of the wild, wild west.”
Many months later and we’re still waiting for all the “wild west” shoot-’em-up shootings to start.
Too bad about the Bishop’s son, but restrictive gun control laws would just make it easier, not harder, for such attacks to take place. And I doubt it will be by law-abiding licensed GFL holders.
And just how can someone be simultaneously “anguished” and “rational” when discussing something which is (to them) a deeply emotional issue? I don’t think you can and the Gov. was absolutely right.