I was think about how we need to change the law on having a firearm in the car.My issue is that I can't have a firearm in my locked car in a parking lot near any place that might become a public gathering say like a bowling alley that sales alcoholic beverages on premises and the bowling alley can also become a sporting event which makes it off-limits to.So why can't we get the law changed so that any off-limits place we can leave the firearm in a locked parked car.This would take care of the elk's lodge case and make it legal to carry in your car but not on you.I'm all for carry any place you like but there will be still place you can't carry in Georgia any way you slice or dice it. So this coming year we need to call write letters to our rep's to change the car carry laws.
If it Fails If the law you propose passes, great. I'm not sure we need it with regard to 16-11-127, because I'm not convinced that having a gun in your car as you drive into and park in the parking lot of a restaurant, a bowling alley, or a government building is "carrying a weapon to..." said places. Right now, there is room to argue that if the building itself is where people gather, only the building is off-limits not the parking lot. Of course you can't say the same thing about airports or MARTA stations, because the law actually defines what those places are, and it includes the parking areas. That really needs to be changed, because it's clear the law is against us as written. Now, if we try and lose, here's the down side. The fact that the legislature was given the opportunity to allow guns in parking lots of public gathering sites and CHOSE NOT TO AMEND THE LAW would be evidence (powerful evidence, I think) that they like the law as-is and want to see it applied to ban guns from parking lots. Of course there are many reasons a bill may fail, most of them more political than based on an honest assessment of a bill's merits, but.... it would still hurt us to try, and lose. P.S. The Elk's Lodge case would not come out differently under your proposal. The youths were gathering in the parking lot while the older adults were gathering inside the building itself. Thus, there were two areas where people gathered, and thus both areas became off-limits. Sporting events are particularly troublesome in this regard, because of all the "tailgating" going on in the parking lot. Ditto for music concerts where people "camp out" in the parking lot, grilling hamburgers, drinking, smoking, talking, etc. That's a public gathering in its own right.
Re: If it Fails Actually that has been covered in court cases as well... Check out the 5th post and down here: http://www.georgiapacking.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=351
Re: I was looking at some old post about have a gun in the c You mean like the one introduced last year that said a gun in the car is exempt from the public gathering law? http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005 ... /sb302.htm
Based on all of the reading I have done...absolutely a public gathering and absolutely illegal to carry there.
Too bad, because you at least stand a good chance of being held up at gun point while you wait for one. I second your
Yes just like this bill but better I would propose that all car carry is exempt in any place in the state of Georgia.So if I went to the Forsyth County Fair and leave my firearm in my car and there is a ton of teenagers around it then I exempt on the public gathering laws because of what I propose.I think this will keep all the judges in check about car carrying and public gatherings issue.My thing is that I would want to think that as soon as I leave the parking lot that has the public gathering I can put my firearm back into my belt holster and become legally armed again.Hey gunstar1 did this bill die or did it pass?The bill only talks about exempting school safety zones not exemting all parking lots that might become a public gathering in which I want to happen darn it we should add Marta to our hit list of parking lots plus add HB 998 to make sure we can be legal all around .PS HB 998 got killed whicih I loved that bill.
The Chamber of Commerce lobbied heavily against that bill, which pretty much killed support for it among Republican legislators.