The state of Georgia just passed constitutional carry earlier this year. For years now, the state has been rolling back Jim Crow-era gun control laws, rules that were put in place to restrict the rights of black men and women but worded so they looked like they applied to everyone.
Eventually, of course, they were applied to everyone, but they’re gone now.
It seems Georgia Democrats–the group who actually passed them in the first place for the aforementioned reasons–want them back.
Georgia Democrats are planning to introduce a series of gun control legislation for lawmakers to consider during the next legislative session.
Among the proposed legislation is a measure to prohibit supplying a semiautomatic assault weapon to anyone under the age of 21 years.
Lawmakers plan to introduce bills similar to House bills 962 and 971, which did not advance during this year’s session and would require owners to report lost or stolen firearms and require firearm dealers to furnish gun locks in all retail firearm sales. State Rep. Sandra Scott, D-Rex, said lawmakers are also eying legislation that would prevent Glock owners from turning the guns into automatic weapons.
Of course, converting a Glock into a full-auto weapon is already illegal. Highly illegal, in fact, and a new law is completely unnecessary.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I have little doubt it happens here in Georgia, but not because of a lack of laws on the books.
Now, to be fair, none of what these Democrats are trying to push is nearly as bad as what Georgia gun rights advocates have rolled back, at least not for the most part (more on that in a bit), but it’s still gun control.
First, they want to create a law that essentially seeks to mandate what crime victims are required to do after being victimized. That’s something they don’t do after literally any other crime, it should be noted. They don’t require rape victims to report their rape. Armed robbery victims aren’t required to report the robbery.
And while most robbery victims do make reports, many rape victims don’t.
So why are gun thefts somehow special? Why are we looking to punish those who are the victims of theft?
Of course, these are lawmakers who want to force stores to pay for locks to be handed out with each gun sale despite the fact that all new guns come with them, and those who want one can usually obtain one from their local police department.
Yes, gun stores providing them might be easier, but that’s lumping yet another requirement and expense on a business that’s already among the most tightly regulated in the nation.
Not that Georgia Democrats actually care about any of that.
What they want is to try and start undoing all the good work that’s been done with regard to gun rights. These are merely the camel’s nose under the tent. They figure if they can get these passed, they can leverage that into more intrusive measures…including their ban on “supplying” semi-autos to people under 21.
After all, that bit isn’t just a prohibition against selling such a gun, but one that would make it illegal for someone to hand their own child a .22 version of an AR for hunting or target practice. It would likely make it a criminal offense to let your 19-year-old brother shoot your AR-15 during a range trip.
Frankly, unless something screwy happens in November, they aren’t going to have the votes to pass any of this anyway, nor should they.
The truth of the matter is that the AR-15 is demonized because of its misuse, but people forget how often other weapons are used. They also forget how often the AR-15 used is taken from its lawful owner.
Yet the AR-15 also is used to protect life. There are numerous examples of just this.
However, I don’t see Georgia Democrats acknowledging this.
