Guns, parks don't mix
Law ought to let cities, counties outlaw firearms in public places
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/23/07
GeorgiaCarry.org is a pro-gun group with a dangerous agenda that would appall most Georgians: It wants gun owners to be able to strap on their pistols and bring them to church, to county commission meetings and to your child's Little League game. It wants bans lifted on guns at bars, political rallies or even at the annual Georgia-Georgia Tech showdown.
Its Web site does not mince words:
"All we want is to be able to move freely about our society, welcomed by our community as armed men and women."
To that end, a GeorgiaCarry lawyer is threatening suit against communities that ban guns from parks for protection of the children who play there, including Kennesaw and Coweta County. GeorgiaCarry.org argues that only the state can regulate firearms and that any local ordinances outlawing guns in parks are illegal.
Kennesaw capitulated to the group's demand, rescinding this month its ordinance banning the carrying of firearms in parks. While the Cobb community vows to fight the issue in the Legislature, it would have been better off to have followed Coweta County's example and taken the dispute to court.
Coweta has won the first legal round, winning a summary judgment in defense of its ordinance in Superior Court. GeorgiaCarry.org is now appealing that decision to the state Court of Appeals, which ought to rule in the county's favor given Georgia law.
Georgia law does prohibit local governments from enacting their own gun regulations. However, since 1870, Georgia has also had a law in place prohibiting the possession of guns at public gatherings, and the local ordinances in question are consistent with that provision.
According to Georgia Code 16-11-127, it is unlawful to carry or possess any firearm at a public gathering, including athletic or sporting events, churches or church functions, political rallies or functions, publicly owned or operated buildings, or establishments at which alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.
Clearly, the Legislature regards guns and parks as incompatible since it outlaws firearms in state parks and historic sites. Georgia Code 12-3-10, which governs behaviors in state parks, states: "It shall also be unlawful for any person to use or possess in any park, historic site, or recreational area any firearms, bows and arrows, spring guns, air rifles, slingshots, or any other device which discharges projectiles by any means."
Nathan T. Lee, the attorney representing Coweta, argues in his brief to the Court of Appeals that GeorgiaCarry.org expects judges to believe "that the public would be more safe if the county's walking trails, Little League fields, gymnasiums, 4-H parks and senior citizens' center were full of people carrying pistols."
That's the standard assertion of the gun lobby. The lobby clings to the fiction that more guns equal more safety despite all the evidence to the contrary. Georgia is awash in privately owned guns, yet the state has one of the nation's highest rates of firearms violence.
GeorgiaCarry.org contends that more liberal gun carrying laws could have prevented such heinous crimes as the 1999 murders of Whitney Land, 22, and her daughter, Jordan, 2, who were abducted from a park in Clayton County and shot.
But guns in parks would likely cause more crimes than prevent them. A few years after the young mother and her baby were murdered, 4-year-old Trevon Wilson was shot through the heart as he rode his bicycle in another Clayton park, caught in the crossfire of warring gangs.
Certainly, there are instances where a gun can prevent a crime, but those occasions are far rarer than gun advocates would have the public believe. According to the FBI's report, Crime in the United States, for every time in 1999 that someone used a handgun to kill in self-defense, 48 people died in handgun homicides.
State lawmakers often contend that the best government is the one closest to the people and that it's local officials who know best what's needed to improve their schools or keep their streets safe. If they believe their own rhetoric, they ought to clarify state law to resolve any doubt that counties and municipalities can enact the gun laws they deem necessary to protect their constituents.
Coweta and Kennesaw have determined that their citizens are safest when guns cannot be brought into their local parks. Indeed, the state feels the exact same away about its own parks.
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Maureen Downey, for the editorial board
the guy made a silly joke about a silly newspaper, it wasn't that big of a deal.