GA is no longer a shall-issue state

[mzmtg]

If you follow the chain of events here: http://www.georgiacarry.org/cms/cate...items/60-days/

You will see that the GA Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that Probate Judges issuing Georgia Firearms Licenses (GFLs) may wait as long as it takes to get complete background checks to issue licenses, regardless of the statutory 60-day time limit.

Since an applicant with no disqualifying information does not even require a report to be submitted back to the judge (by the local law enforcement agency running the checks), they may now legally wait indefinitely to issue a GFL by waiting on a report that will never come.

GA is now effectively a may-issue state.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[mzmtg]

I may be wrong but it appear the GCO, in effect, shot itself in the foot.

Has anyone not received a permit since this decision was made?

Does this mean no one will be able to get their permit renewed?

it means the judges can now legally take their sweet time issuing GFLs.

They've been doing it illegally for years.

Hopefully this situation will make it clear to our legislators that our gun laws are FUBAR and need a thorough overhaul.

[1911packer]

My application is somewhere in the system, so I guess I shouldn't hold my breath. Not only is this a foul up, but the probate judge in my county isn't running for reelection. There appears to be nothing I can use as leverage to get him off his tail.

[mzmtg]

My application is somewhere in the system, so I guess I shouldn't hold my breath. Not only is this a foul up, but the probate judge in my county isn't running for reelection. There appears to be nothing I can use as leverage to get him off his tail.

You can check up on your background check progress if you know who to call and what to ask for. GCO has put together this handy guide:

http://www.georgiacarry.org/cms/geor...st-but-verify/

[dogrunner]

West Virginia also had no end of trouble with Judges acting as issuing authorities. They solved their problem by shifting the responsibility to the County Sheriff.

My personal view is that the matter of issuance ought not to be in the hands of either the courts or LE.....Florida's system is a hulluva lot fairer and easily as effective as any other state that reposes the authority in the former two branches of Gov't..

[Captain Crunch]

West Virginia also had no end of trouble with Judges acting as issuing authorities. They solved their problem by shifting the responsibility to the County Sheriff.

Same with Montana. Prior to 1991, Montana was "may issue", with District Court judges having sole discretion in issuing permits. Some judges would issue a permit if you had "pull", some judges wouldn't issue to anybody under any circumstances, and judges in Butte-Silver Bow County would issue to any law-abiding citizen.

The Legislature passed "shall issue" in 1991, with county sheriffs as the issuing authority. Problem solved.

[packinnova]

Wait...I'm lost. Perhaps I'm not in Georgia, but...
The law says 60 days right? The judge basically said they can ignore the law....Who's filed a formal complaint with the GSP to arrest the judge for breaking and encouraging others to break the law? No answers? Ok, so who's calling their lawyers to file suit agaist same said judge/s for same said infractions?

[rljohns]

We had that same problem in Colorado when local city PD issued some of the permits. We shifted it to sheriff only and the problem was solved. It took me three weeks. Most county SO are more pro-gun. The problem we had in my city was the Police Commissioner didn't think that non-LEO had the ability to handle a firearm in public.

[amathis]

If the government would just support the second ammendment like our founding fathers intended we wouldn't have a problem with waiting for permits to carry. Thats why I LOVE Vermont. Any citizen who can legaly own a gun and is over the age of 16 may conceal and carry!

[BruceGibson]

If the government would just support the second ammendment like our founding fathers intended we wouldn't have a problem with waiting for permits to carry. Thats why I LOVE Vermont. Any citizen who can legaly own a gun and is over the age of 16 may conceal and carry!

+1

[NCHornet]

All of you folks from GA need to join Grass Roots of GA. Most states have them and these groups will keep you updated of all new proposals both good and bad as well as links to the emails of all your reps so you can voice your opinion. As the member basically said above if we are all silent, we are just as bad as sheep. We need to stay on top of our states gun laws and do everything we can to change them or keep them from being changed. Grass Roots just makes this way to easy to not join.

[goldshellback]

The whole GA state statues concerning gun laws are SNAFU'ed anyway. I live in fairly pro-gun county and only waited days to get mine. I hear more stories of months of waiting in other counties. Judges have been 'pushed' to speed it up but if they delay the process nobody could do anything......and now it appears it's lawful for the judges to continue breaking GA state law.

Overall we, as voters, hired our political leaders to take care of business. If we don't like the job thier doing, we need to fire 'em and hire (vote) some quality people to take care of our business.

[peacefuljeffrey]

What info I've gathered lately about the state of Georgia's carry privileges led me to believe that CCW in GA was one of the poorest excuses for CCW anywhere. Stuff like not being legal to carry at a highway rest stop... that's just nuts. It demonstrates that gun owners compromised FAR too much to get CCW enacted there. In some places, the restrictions on CCW are so numerous and onerous that we might as well not have it there. Like Georgia.

[peacefuljeffrey]

If the government would just support the second ammendment like our founding fathers intended we wouldn't have a problem with waiting for permits to carry. Thats why I LOVE Vermont. Any citizen who can legaly own a gun and is over the age of 16 may conceal and carry!

Doesn't the federal law still require age 21 before one can carry a handgun? Or is that just to purchase one? I know that you can be given one by a parent at 18, but in Vermont, does that mean one can CARRY prior to age 21?

[ronwill]

I may be wrong but it appear the GCO, in effect, shot itself in the foot.

Has anyone not received a permit since this decision was made?

Does this mean no one will be able to get their permit renewed?

What this basicly does is give the local county probate courts a lot of power in withholding permits. So far the longest it has taken for me to get mine has been just shy of four months. A change in probate judges can reduce this time or extend it dramaticly.