Active School Shooter? Make The Victims Wait! © 2022 Phillip Evans

The 2022 Uvalde, TX and 2018 Parkland, FL public school massacres has me scratching my head why any state (including Georgia) in our country would criminalize citizens who are licensed to carry, while being armed with their peacefully holstered handguns at a K-12 school. In both cases, law-enforcement stood down and let many innocents be murdered.

School Zone Sign

Photo by Dan Reed

Forcing unarmed teachers and staff in charge of children who are being fired upon to fight back with books, erasers, and chairs while the police sit outside wondering what to do is not an option that any sane  person supports.

Imagine the horror in that moment of having no way to save yourself or your innocent students that are dying before your eyes, if living long enough to witness it.

Whenever Democrats in power put Second Amendment infringements into law, count on Republicans who later come into power to take their own sweet time in removing them - if they ever do.

Case in point: Georgia's public gathering law made most public places off-limits to firearms carry, even for those who had a license to carry! It was put in place by Democrats in 1870 to disarm Blacks who wanted to be armed while protesting for their right to be decently treated, in order to keep from being murdered by Whites for doing so.

The Georgia General Assembly saw Republicans gaining control of both the House and Senate Chambers by 2007, but they waited three long years before finally repealing this Jim Crow law in 2010, with SB 308 signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

And that was only after much lobbying by Georgia Carry (now GA2A).

Permitless carry, hyped as "Constitutional Carry" was passed and signed into law Feb. 2022, but ALL of the current off-limits places (placed into law by Democrats in the past), were preserved by our "pro-Second Amendment" Republican state lawmakers. Wow, thanks a lot folks. 

Since public college Campus Carry passed in 2017 with HB 280 (again, after years of begging), NOTHING has been done for licensed carriers of firearms. Five years of ZILCH. Not even crumbs. 

If we take the trouble to get a license, passing state and federal background checks, why can't we be trusted to carry everywhere we have business to be, with the exception of jails/prisons, courtrooms in session, and locked down, guarded mental institutions?

Make no mistake, Kemp's "Constitutional Carry" bill was only brought forth because David Perdue brought up permitless carry in his primary challenge against Kemp. 

Apparently, infringements can quickly be removed when politics matter. 

I thought it was innocent lives that should matter, instead of politics?

Need proof that it was politics and not concern for folks that wanted to carry a gun for self-protection? GA2A begged Kemp to suspend the restriction on unlicensed carry of handguns when county courtrooms stopped issuing licenses, or required months to wait for an appointment. Kemp REFUSED to suspend the license requirement, although he did suspend the mask law during the pandemic.

It's nice that health mattered to him, but not self-defense against criminals if you were unlucky to not be able to get a license to carry. Isn't that health related also? It is when a criminal threatens your health and life.

DEMOCRATS put in place the license requirement to carry a handgun, back in 1910. It only took our "pro-Second Amendment" state Republicans 15 years after getting control in 2007 to remove this infringement, when politics of reelecting Kemp mattered.

And please DON'T CALL it "Constitutional Carry", as there is still the ban on adults 18-20 years old to carry a handgun in public, unless they are active military members or in one of the favored special professions.

One of these state favored professions is Superior Court Clerk. They can carry in places licensed carriers cannot legally carry, yet they can do so even without a license or training...

Places like K-12 schools, polling places when voting, and churches, not to mention government buildings with screening. How does that make sense, or is in any way fair to us citizens that took the time and trouble to obtain a Georgia Weapons Carry License?

If political expediency can remove the license requirement to carry in public, how much more bloodshed of innocent lives in "gun free" zones do we need to witness before removing the remaining off-limits places, AT LEAST for those with a LICENSE to carry.

Here's a hint to the Georgia General Assembly in case they didn't know... Criminals carry in all those places regardless of the law. Words on paper cannot stop an evil gunman, but a good guy/gal with a gun can.

Criminals should not have the upper hand just because politicians are afraid to trust licensed carriers.

Lawmakers will say that local school boards have the authority to arm teachers and staff, but only two small rural counties in Georgia have done so, leaving the rest defenseless. Passing the buck to anti-armed-defense school boards is not leadership.

Do you want to see greater self-defense liberty in Georgia? Join GA2A (formerly Georgia Carry). I've been a member since 2010. This article was not written on behalf of GA2A, but is my own personal work.