NRA Hasn't Weighed-In Yet On Bearden Bill, But National Gun Group Won't Like It

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(1/3/07) The NRA hasn’t weighed-in yet, but it looks like we’re going to have a shootout at the Georgia General Assembly this year over two competing gun bills.

We’ve told you previously about the NRA’s main bill – the parking lot guns bill which would prohibit employers from taking steps to bar their workers from having guns in cars parked at the workplace. The bill was introduced last year and was blocked by a strong coalition of business groups arguing that it would violate private property rights. The measure remains alive this year, however, and remains the NRA’s top priority.

We’ve also told you about a rival proposal by Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica, and a group called GeorgiaCarry.org, which does a number of other things. Among them: Mayor Bloomberg would face criminal penalties for sending undercover agents to Georgia to try to get gun shops to sell to “straw purchasers,” the government couldn’t seize weapons as Louisiana authorities sought to do after Hurricane Katrina, and Georgia’s carry laws would be substantially overhauled.

One link between them is procedural. Last year, Bearden passed a much less complicated bill through the House intended to give people more latitude in carrying guns in their autos. In the Senate, it became a vehicle for the NRA to bring its parking lot bill back to life after the original proposal ran afoul of a Senate deadline. The omnibus bill - now HB 89 - did not reach a vote on the Senate floor.

But there’s more. Some of the GeorgiaCarry folks think the NRA is out of step with what Georgia sportsmen and shooters want, and is putting forward its plan as a counter-measure. (It does, however, contain some things the NRA wants and has supported in other states, and some of the backers don’t view the upcoming fight so much as a confrontation with the NRA as a simple disagreement among advocates of gun rights.)

Now for the meat in the cocoanut. Bearden’s bill – prefiled last week as HB 915 – contains this language:

"Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to limit, restrict, or prohibit in any manner the existing rights of a private property owner, unless such private property has been leased to a government entity, and nothing in this Code section shall be construed to limit, restrict, or prohibit in any manner the existing rights of a private tenant, private employer, or private business entity."

That, according to those who have looked at the law carefully, makes the NRA’s guns-in-the-parking-lot effort moot, and, at the proper time, you can bet the national gun group will weigh-in with both barrels. It’s already warned lawmakers that the issue will be the only thing it judges on its legislative scorecard - - and this is an election year.