(The Center Square) — 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.
“It is time that we as Georgians truly think about some common sense gun legislation,” Scott told The Center Square. “We hear the conversations, and we hear the talk all the time about ‘people kill, guns don’t.’ But we’ve got to be a little bit better than that because we know that with people getting guns and guns in the wrong hands, that is what constitutes the crime.
“When people can carry guns everywhere and have guns everywhere, that puts us into a different category,” Scott added. “We really need to be trying to come up with a way that will restrict kids from being able to go in and purchase weapons. …We’ve just got to change all of these laws that are not in the best interest of Georgians and not in the best interest of people around the United States, not only Georgia.”
Earlier this year, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 319, a “constitutional carry” measure allowing Georgians to carry guns without needing a state-issued license. Democrats and opponents have derided the legislation as “guns everywhere.”
Last week, Scott and two other lawmakers — Reps. Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta, and Rhonda Burnough, D-Riverdale — cited the recent shooting deaths of two Cobb County sheriff’s deputies, Marshall Samual Ervin Jr. and Jonathan Randall Koleski, to advocate for the new legislation. The officers were shot and killed while trying to serve a warrant.
“Governor Kemp and his family were deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Deputies Ervin and Koleski,” a spokesman for the governor told The Center Square. “It is inappropriate to politicize any deaths, but especially the killings of brave officers who face danger on a regular basis in service to their fellow Georgians.”
By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square contributor
