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Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Georgia Supreme Court upholds ban on those under 21 from carrying handguns in public
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court upheld a state law Wednesday that bans most people under 21 from carrying a handgun in public. Under Georgia law, anyone ages 18 to 20 years old can possess handguns on their own property, in their car, at their business or for hunting, fishing and sport shooting. Those in the age group who have been trained by the military are exempt. Thomas Stephens, a 20-year-old man from Lumpkin County, sued Georgia after a probate court denied him a weapons carry license in 2023, when he was 18. Stephens asked the state to stop enforcing that law, which he said violated his constitutional rights. A trial court granted the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The Georgia Supreme Court denied his appeal, noting Georgia's Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms but lets the General Assembly regulate how they are carried. Georgia has some of the loosest gun laws in the country. The decision comes in the aftermath of heated debates about gun control in the state after a mass shooting at Apalachee High School, northeast of Atlanta, where a 14-year-old boy stands accused of killing two teachers and two students and wounding several others last Sept. 4. Stephens asked the state Supreme Court to pick one of two federal legal tests used for Second Amendment challenges, 'strict scrutiny' or 'history and tradition,' to evaluate whether Georgia's law is constitutional. The decision, written by Justice Andrew Pinson, says those standards are 'not viable substitutes' for determining what the text of the state Constitution originally meant. Unlike Georgia, the U.S. Constitution doesn't explicitly let legislatures regulate how people carry guns. Pinson wrote in the decision that construing the meaning of a constitutional provision 'requires careful attention to not only the language of the clause in question, but also its broader legal and historical context.' Stephens' attorney John Monroe argued the law infringed on his client's rights. He also called it an arbitrary law because military training focuses on weapons other than handguns. But he knew unraveling the law would be an uphill battle. 'It's not unexpected because there's over a century of precedent that was against us,' Monroe said of Wednesday's decision. He said they are 'disappointed with the decision' but 'it is what it is.' Stephens' lawsuit came less than a year after Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill in 2022 allowing Georgians to carry a handgun without a permit from the state. A bill that would let people sue local governments for enacting gun safety measures died on the final day of Georgia's legislative session in April, and several gun safety proposals did not make it out of committee. ___ Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Georgia Supreme Court unanimously upholds 21 as age to carry handguns in public
The Georgia Supreme Court threw out a constitutional challenge to a state law blocking anyone under 21 from carrying handguns in public. The ruling came as a 20-year-old man from Lumpkin County sued, having issued a constitutional challenge. Thomas Stephens, of Lumpkin County, sued the State of Georgia in Superior Court after a probate court in the county denied him getting a weapons carry license. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The Georgia Attorney General's Office filed to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the block on anyone younger than 21 having a handgun in public was 'a permissible exercise of the police power' authorized by Georgia's constitution. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously to reject Stephens' challenge. TRENDING STORIES: Husband, wife from Buford drown near Destin resort Former Kool & the Gang member dies in car crash in Mableton Marietta hotel fined women hundreds for smoking, but they say other activities tripped sensors In the opinion, authored by Justice Andrew A. Pinson, the court said his 'quite narrow' challenge did not argue that the statute violates the state constitution, as it has been applied by the Georgia Supreme Court for more than 100 years. Additionally, the court said Stephens did not show a conflict between the prohibition statute and the Georgia Constitution, nor the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. 'Most problematic, Stephens does not even say how or why that construction is not consistent with the provision's original public meaning—at least not with any detail or real authority in support—and he offers no serious alternative construction that would establish, what, in his view, the correct understanding of that original public meaning is,' Justice Pinson wrote. 'Instead, he asks us to uncritically import federal standards to guide the application of a provision unique to Georgia's Constitution—a practice we have regularly criticized and disapproved.' According to the court, Georgia law allows anyone between 18 to 21 to have long guns, such as rifles, and carry them in public, as well as to have handguns and carry them on private property. However, unless someone has received weapons training as part of military service, anyone under 21 cannot carry a handgun in public, the court wrote. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
State Supreme Court upholds law requiring Georgians to be 21 to carry handguns
The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a state policy barring those between 18 and 21 from carrying a handgun in Georgia Supreme Court upheld a state law that bars most people between the ages 18 and 21 from carrying handguns in public without military training Wednesday. The court unanimously backed a lower court in rejecting the challenge from Thomas Stephens, a 20-year-old Georgian seeking to end enforcement of the prohibition. Georgians between 18 and 21 can carry long guns in public, and they can carry handguns at home, in their car or in their place of business and use them for hunting, fishing or sport shooting with the associated license. But only 18- to 20-year-olds who have received weapons training as part of military service are generally able to carry a handgun in public. Stephens' attorney John Monroe argued that the exception is arbitrary and other young adults may be as capable of safely carrying handguns as members of the military. 'When you look at the nature of the training that a young person in the military gets, which is, as we said in our briefs, geared toward rifles and using other small arms like hand grenades, that's not very well-suited or significant when it comes to carrying handguns in public, as opposed to training that people might get outside of the military that's geared exactly towards carrying handguns,' he said. The state, represented by the Office of Attorney General Chris Carr, argued that the prohibition on handguns for young adults is authorized by the Georgia Constitution as a permissible exercise of police power. The unanimous opinion authored by Justice Andrew A. Pinson rejects Stephens' call to overturn state precedent in favor of tests created by federal courts, describing it as a request 'to uncritically import federal standards to guide the application of a provision unique to Georgia's Constitution—a practice we have regularly criticized and disapproved.' The state Legislature has been at the center of a debate over firearm access in recent years, especially since last September's shooting at Apalachee High School, in which four people died. Proposals designed to encourage safe firearm storage stalled during the 2025 legislative session. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
