The groups are trying to stop House Bill 512 which passed the House of Representatives Thursday, just hours before the legislature’s internal deadline. Now the matter is pending in the Senate.
The House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee rolled into one the several separate bills to relax various gun-control measures. Then the House passed it largely on a party-line vote.
“We firmly believe the current law promotes a safe learning environment for our students and working environment for our faculty and staff,” notes the four-sentence statement signed by Chancellor Hank Huckaby, the regents of the University System of Georgia and the presidents of the state’s 31 public colleges.
Huckaby testified against it in the House committee.
A group calling itself Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is taking a more public tact. Jewish and Christian clergy are also scheduled to participate.
“As people of faith, we urge our elected leaders to reject the proliferation of guns in public places as advocated in HB512,” said the Rev. Gary Charles, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church across the street from the Capitol. “We call our worship spaces ‘sanctuaries’ as a reminder that this is where God’s people come to worship God and feel safe from the threat of gun violence.”
Legislators supporting the bill point to the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment as giving citizens the right to carry guns, arguing that rights should only be restricted under rare circumstances. They also challenge gun-control advocates’ contention that outlawing guns would make people safe by noting that murder is already illegal and that anyone willing to break that law won’t be stopped by a new one.
The Senate chairman of the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee where HB 512 is pending, Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro, has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday afternoon, but the bill is not on the list for consideration.
Where is safe?
&
"Sanctuaries"
Really? Hello? I am quite sure the BOE & Faculty for Sandy Hook, didn't think that they had an unsafe environment.
Individuals willing to enter a school or house of worship with the intent to find an abundance of helpless victims want a weapons free zone. They are at best insane and at worst inherently evil, either way they are cowards. There is a reason why you don't have mass murders by a lone gunman in a police station. If Dawn Hochsprung had been armed when she lunged at Adam Lanza in violation of the weapon free zone policy, the tragedy would likely have been limited to his mom.
Zero dead beats one dead any time, anywhere, for any reason.
Yeah?
So you are in favor of a total gun ban?
No one is allowed to own them and you have a plan to destroy every privately, legally owned gun, how?
If I had someone with serious mental issues in my home, I would not keep guns there BUT you cannot legislate common sense.
Zero does not beat one if the one being dead prevents loss of many innocent lives or would you give the Saddam Hussein's of this world a warm fuzzy message to be nice?
If Rev. Charles feels that way, then he can still prohibit firearms at Central Presbyterian Church, where there are dozens of Georgia State Patrol officers right across the street. The churches should have the RIGHT to decide for themselves.
Other churches aren't located quite so close to local law enforcement, and need the security that a few members could provide.
Excellent point! (Now get prepared to be attacked by the gun crazies who were lined up a mile long to get into the gun show at the Forum.)