Gun-Rights Group Loses Ga. Supreme Court Challenge

ATLANTA, GA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled against a gun-rights group that wanted state law changed to let more people carry guns at schools.

The ruling, written by Chief Justice Hugh Thompson, lets stand Georgia's current law, which allows licensed handgun owners to carry at schools as long as they are picking up or dropping off a student.

The group — GeorgiaCarry.org — had sued Gov. Nathan Deal, Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, in his capacity as president of the state senate. The suit sought to compel them to order state law be rewritten to clarify that it is more generally legal to carry a handgun at schools.

The governor's office and the state's Code Revision Commission, which also was named in the lawsuit, successfully filed to have it dismissed by a Fulton County judge, but GeorgiaCarry appealed.

The suit stemmed from the passage of two bills related to carrying guns on campus during the 2013-14 legislative session.

The first, House Bill 826, was amended to guarantee licensed firearms holders the right to carry a handgun in school "safety zones."

The second, House Bill 60, was a more comprehensive bill dealing with firearms issues. It granted the right to carry a firearm on school property, but only "when such person carries or picks up a student within a school safety zone."

Since it was the more recent of the two bills signed into law, the Code Revision Commission ruled that House Bill 60's language overrides the more permissive language in House Bill 826.

On Monday, Georgia's Supreme Court said the lower court acted properly when it dismissed the lawsuit, in effect saying that since the second law was correctly deemed to replace the earlier one, there's nothing to complain about.

"(GeorgiaCarry) was not entitled to relief under any state of provable facts alleged in the amended complaint, there was no actual controversy which would have authorized a declaratory judgment, and the trial court did not err by granting (the Code Revision Commission's) motion to dismiss," Monday's ruling reads.

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