Georgia's gun laws

There has been much ado recently in Georgia about the possibility of amending the state law with what has already been done in Florida, a so called "stand your ground" law; essentially this law would protect citizens that are involved in a confrontation where deadly force becomes necessary from overzealous lawyers and DA's from prosecuting. Currently, there is no language in state law that requires the attempt be made to safely retreat from a potentially dangerous situation.

The AJC editorial board, not surprisingly, has come out against this:

If you believe the outlandish rhetoric at the Legislature, high school graduates in the state ought to be issued Glocks at graduation because they won't be safe making their way in the world unless they're armed, able to bring their guns to work and allowed to fire at the first provocation.

Now that's an idea; here's your diploma and a Glock 17. Happy hunting! Needless to say, the AJC editorial stance has been one of the same "outlandish rhetoric" they accuse the state legislature of. They make it sound like if someone flips a person off then this law will allow that person to open fire on the flipper - there are laws already in place that prevent that. The person that does shoot the flipper is most likely not a law-abiding, permit carrying citizen.

Not all is lost at the AJC; there is the wonderful Det. Steve Rose who writes a regular column on general safety and local crimes with a good bit of wit and sarcasm. He has written his opinion of the change to the state law:

The proposed legislation is a clear indication that violent crimes are up and your chances of being caught in the middle are better than they were a few years ago. "Wrong place at the wrong time"” can play a major role in a situation of deadly force. In such a situation, (such as on a sidewalk or parking lot, as the bill allows) having a weapon would give you the opportunity to save your own life. Your fate would not completely be in the hands of the bad guy.

He also relates this story of when he was approached one evening:

Once was in a parking lot downtown, about 9 p.m. A man walked up to me while we were leaving the circus at the Omni. He just walked up, looked around, and started asking why we left the circus so early? I wanted to thank him for looking around because it very quickly tipped me off that he was up to no good and it allowed me time to react.

I can still remember the look on his face when he turned back around and met my agent, Mr. Beretta. Mr. Beretta, who represented me for a few years, said we were too busy to be robbed that night, but thank you anyway. Mr. Beretta asked the man to run very fast in the opposite direction. The man ran and then jumped over the wall at the edge of the parking deck. As we drove out, I realized we were on the third floor of the parking deck. He was pretty young so he probably had some bounce in him.

In the comments section below there are several comments left by supporters and opposers, some ridiculous, some common sense. One of the things pointed out, though, is the fact that most private gun owners have sought out more training than most police officers. I have found this to be somewhat true; I've shot next to a couple of officers at the gun range before, and the lack of discipline as well as their atrocious shooting scores have proved it to me.

What it comes down to is this - only law abiding citizens will obey the law. Criminals will not. To highlight one more thing from Det. Rose: "Criminal(s) will tell you; they tell me when I see them at our class reunions, that there is an effective sub-culture and communication among them. From what I can tell, they don'’t like to get shot. This is evident by a temporary drop in crime stats in the area where a bad guy gets shot."