Georgia Law Enforcement Speaks Out Against Permit-less Carry Bill

As the Georgia Legislature advances an extreme permit-less carry bill being pushed by both Brian Kemp and David Perdue, Georgia law enforcement officials – from Columbus to Macon to Savannah – are warning about the dangerous legislation. The proposal — which 70% of Georgians oppose — allows the carrying of firearms in public without a permit, effectively eliminating part of the background check process which anyone wanting to carry a concealed firearm currently must undergo.

• Macon-Bibb County law enforcement: “‘I think it would probably cause an increase in gun crimes,’ Colonel Henderson Carswell said.” (41NBC)

• Muscogee County law enforcement: “[Muscogee County Sheriff Greg] Countryman said law enforcement officials would be in ‘uncharted waters’ by making it more difficult for them to determine whether an armed individual is legally carrying their weapons.” (Washington Post)

• Savannah law enforcement: “‘Why now? Why is this coming up now?’ asked Roy W. Minter, Jr., police chief in Savannah, Ga., who noted his city had more than 100 guns stolen out of unlocked vehicles last year. ‘One of the concerns I have [with the legislation] is more people leaving their guns in cars. People leaving their guns in other places, because now there is more freedom to have that gun with them.’” (Washington Post)

• Mercer University law enforcement: “‘I think what we’ve got in place now, it works for us,’ [Lieutenant Gary] Mills said. ‘I think if it changed without restrictions, I think it could put us backward…my personal opinion, there should be restrictions in place for gun carry.” (The Mercer Cluster)

Permit-less carry has also faced opposition from law enforcement officers throughout the country, including in Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. 

States that have passed permit-less carry laws saw aggravated assaults with a gun spike up to 65%, while states that weakened their firearm permitting system saw up to a 15% increase in violent crime. Georgia already has the 17th highest rate of gun deaths in the nation, with the rate of gun deaths increasing 20% from 2009 to 2018.
 

Read more about what law enforcement officials, Republicans, former law enforcement officers and other Georgians are warning: 

Washington Post: As gun ownership rises, Georgia looks to loosen restrictions: It’s the ‘wild, wild West’  

• “Why now? Why is this coming up now?” asked Roy W. Minter, Jr., police chief in Savannah, Ga., who noted his city had more than 100 guns stolen out of unlocked vehicles last year. “One of the concerns I have [with the legislation] is more people leaving their guns in cars. People leaving their guns in other places, because now there is more freedom to have that gun with them.” 

• If the “constitutional carry” legislation is approved, Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman said law enforcement officials would be in “uncharted waters” by making it more difficult for them to determine whether an armed individual is legally carrying their weapons.

The Mercer Cluster: Mercer Police Officers wary Kemp’s proposed constitutional carry bill could “put us backwards”

• Speaking to the Chief of Mercer University Police, Gary Collins, there was clear concern regarding the proposed reform.

• “You know, I believe in the Second Amendment, but I do believe there should be some restrictions placed on people carrying,” Collins said. “There are a lot of people out there carrying guns now, no license whatsoever, no background checks, you know, just any and everybody, could have a gun.”

• Lieutenant Gary Mills echoed this sentiment, arguing his support for the current restrictions in place in relation to their work on campus.

• “I think what we’ve got in place now, it works for us,” Mills said. “I think if it changed without restrictions, I think it could put us backward.”

• “People need to unite, pull together, they don’t need to go solo, split up and divide,” Mills said. “You’ve got a bunch that would like no restrictions. But my personal opinion, there should be restrictions in place for gun carry.”

GPB: GOP lawmakers are gunning for permitless carry in Georgia. How many people would it affect?

• During a press conference in January, House Speaker David Ralston was wary of doing away guardrails to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals suffering from mental health issues.

• “I think we have some safeguards in the law that regardless of which direction we go in, we need to keep,” he told reporters. “For example, the mental health component of that is something that I don’t want to see us chunk that away. I’ve talked to law enforcement officers about that, and they’re very fearful of that.”

13WMAZ: ‘I was kind of surprised’: Central Georgia law enforcement reacts to Kemp’s intent to loosen handgun carry rules 

• “We don’t have a problem with people carrying guns. It’s when guns are in the hands of people who are not supposed to have guns. I was kind of surprised, because with gun violence stuff, I thought we’d be going in the other direction for gun laws. Personally speaking and professionally speaking, I thought we’d be going in the other direction, but wherever it goes, we will deal with it,” Macon-Bibb County’s Colonel Henderson Carswell said.

41NBC: Proposed Constitutional Carry law: What it means for Middle Georgia 

• If the new law passes, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office hopes it does not make it easier for guns to fall into the wrong hands.

• “I think it would probably cause an increase in gun crimes,” Colonel Henderson Carswell said. “Some people choose to carry whether they have a license or not and often times it’s the reason that they’re possessing the firearm that caused the problem in the first place.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Law enforcement split on practicality of ‘permit-less’ carrying of handguns in Ga.

• Danny Agan, who retired from the Atlanta Police Department after 29 years, said it’s “not such a bad idea” to have a licensing process in place.

• “It likely removes those who are less focused and serious about gun safety and the responsibility that goes with gun ownership from just being able to strap a gun on and walk out the door,” said Agan, who served as the homicide commander when he retired. “The permit maybe makes a person give deeper thought to what they are doing when carrying a gun, since they went through the process.”

11Alive: Georgia lawmakers may waive gun carry permit in 2022

• At the Georgia capitol, the opposition has come from Democrats – and even from some Republicans like state Rep. Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon), a respected Vietnam War and law enforcement veteran. 

• “I’m very pro-gun. But I’ve seen the damage they can inflict on many, many occasions. We have to be very careful about our gun laws and who we allow to have them,” Hitchens said in an interview in January 2020. 

Here’s what law enforcement officials across the country are saying:
 

KXAN (Texas): Will ‘Constitutional Carry’ law put more Texas police officers in harm’s way? 

• “I don’t know what it’s a solution to,” James McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Police Chiefs Association, said. “I don’t know what the problem was to start with.” 

• “The entire process was done to appease a certain block of voters, to appease a very, very vocal, active group that were just demanding that they be allowed to carry guns,” he said.

• Ray Hunt, executive director of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said the bill could potentially have grave consequences for law enforcement officers, noting that it could be harder for them to decipher whether someone carrying a weapon is legally able to do so.

• In Austin, Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon said in April that while he supports the Second Amendment, he didn’t believe that was the issue at hand. 

• “I want to be clear, this is not about the Second Amendment,” Chacon said. “It’s not about peoples’ right to lawfully carry a firearm — I’m very much in support of all those things. Carrying a powerful weapon is also a responsibility.” 

• Chacon explained that it’s important for police to know who is licensed to carry a firearm and who isn’t. Without these checks in place, officers may not be able to verify who could potentially have a gun, he explained. 

ABC News (Alabama, Indiana, and Ohio): Permitless gun carry laws draw opposition from law enforcement

• In Ohio, Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey was one of more than 80 opponents to testify in December before a state Senate public safety committee against SB 215, which allows people 21 and older who are legally allowed to own a gun to conceal it without a permit.

• “To allow people to carry concealed with no background check, no documentation of who they are and no training is dangerous,” McGuffey told ABC News. “I am not against the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms. What I’m asking people to do is consider that there must be some failsafe placed into the system.”

• “What we have done now is we’ve taken away the one tool that police officers had out on the street to be able to act quickly and efficiently for not only their personal safety but for the safety of our communities,” Patrick Flannelly, vice president of the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, told Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV.

• Among those who had spoken out against the bill were the Alabama Sheriffs Association, the Alabama Association of School Resource Officers and multiple local law enforcement agencies.

The Advocate (Lousiana): ‘An absolutely terrible bill’: Sheriffs, police chiefs urge lawmakers to oppose permitless carry

• “This is an absolutely terrible bill, not only for the men and women who wear this badge and serve the public, but it’s a terrible bill for the public as well,” said East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux III. “This poses an exponential threat to every law enforcement officer in this state.”

• Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said that the training required to obtain a permit is crucial, not only for learning how to shoot a gun, but also to understand how to safely store a firearm and the laws governing justifiable use-of-force. He said the bill could unleash a wave of irresponsible and untrained gunowners, “adding another dimension of threat to the threat that already exists” for law enforcement. 

• Webre added that the legislation could also embolden untrained people to act like citizen vigilantes, unnecessarily escalating minor incidents like noise complaints into deadly encounters. 

The Hill (Ohio): Ohio governor signs permitless concealed carry bill 

• In an interview last week, a top law enforcement officer in Cincinnati, Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, said the new law would contribute to the wave of violence.

• “To vote for people to be able to concealed carry without a license, without any training, without any documentation, it makes it exponentially harder for law enforcement to prevent gun crimes,” McGuffey said. “It is going to promote lawlessness. I think that there will be people who carry weapons concealed for the purpose of being vigilantes.”

Associated Press (Tennessee): Tennessee GOP pushes gun bill over law enforcement concerns

• Law enforcement organizations opposed to the current legislation, dubbed “constitutional carry” by its proponents, include the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association and the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.

• “Since 1996, almost 25 years of successful implementation, the existing permit process has served our citizens well,” the sheriffs’ group recently wrote in a letter to House lawmakers. “The handgun carry permit process provides a method and procedure that allows confirmation and verification of lawful handgun carry.”

• While testifying against the bill, TBI Senior Policy Adviser Jimmy Musice told lawmakers that Tennessee’s handgun permit system helped prevent roughly 5,500 people from carrying a weapon because it flagged them as ineligible.

• “We don’t have any issue, and support the underlying policy that those that are legally permissible to carry possess a firearm and defend themselves,” Musice said. “The permit process allows us to actually do that by knowing if that person truly is lawful.” 

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