In response to Georgia’s suspension of the processing of carry permits, yet another lawsuit has been filed. This latest, House and Georgia Carry v. Kemp and Brackett, filed in the Superior Court of Union County, raises some interesting points which were not initially addressed the the Carter v. Kemp or Walters v. Kemp federal cases. That is not a criticism of those actions; there have been new developments since those suits were filed.
Unlike the Carter and Walters lawsuits, House does not ask that Georgia’s law requiring a license for weapons carry be suspended for the duration of the emergency. It merely asks that Probate Judge Brackett process license applications as required by law.
The complaint notes that Georgia Carry asked Governor Brian Kemp to suspend that law requiring a permit to carry, but the governor declined to do so. However the complaint also points out that the governor has suspended other laws; specifically the “prohibition against wearing masks in public” and the “requirement to take a road test to obtain a driver’s license.”
If the court is honest, that latter suspension should be a winning point. In Walters v. Kemp, the state argued that weapons licenses could not be processed safely because the application process requires the applicant and clerk to be in close proximity for fingerprinting and photographing, risking exposure to the coronavirus. The state also claimed that because a mask can’t be worn while the applicant is photographed, that is an additional risk.
While the suspension of the driving test removes one element of proximity, I can assure you — as someone with both a Georgia driver license and a weapons carry license — that the paperwork-processing, vision test, and picture-taking for the driver’s license (which also requires the removal of any mask) puts the individuals just as close together as the weapons license procedure, and for a longer period of time.
If the Department of Driver Services (DDS) can safely process driver licenses, probate courts can safely process weapons carry licenses. I’ll also note that the waiting area of my local DDS gets far more crowded than does the probate court clerk’s office, providing more opportunities to spread viruses.
In fact, if probate courts are concerned about contact spread of the virus via the fingerprint scanner, I should mention that when I got my driver license the clerk wiped down the vision test set between customers. And that was before the pandemic. For what we are charged for a weapons license in Georgia, I think probate courts can afford to buy a few disinfectant wipes at the dollar store.
Should the court follow the lead of other license lawsuits and deny this complaint, I look forward to seeing the judge’s mental contortions in doing do.
You can track the progress of this case here.
Funny…I don’t see any articles of this nature coming from states with permitless (constitutional) carry…
All the more galling considering how we were anticipating the ‘NY Pistol’ decision that turned out to be a bitter disappointment.
Oh, well. At least all 10 cases in conference are still in conference as of right now, so it could be worse, they could have been denied cert. :
https://airtable.com/shrcrC5FsedZqIi3T/tblMclNyymYiklOOg/viwM47ZZsFWQo69Vf
How very Chernobyl of you
?
Hannibal do you know what Chernobyl is?
Or do you just throw that word around because you just learned it on social media?
“How very Chernobyl of you”
Please clarify.
As far as I’m aware, I have no access to an archaic graphite pile nuclear reactor to melt down and contaminate large ares…
They didn’t say no, just not now I have a headache. The non-supreme court has now emboldened the socialists to go full speed ahead with constitutional infringements because Justice Jackass Roberts will not allow any appeals to be heard. Wonder if he is buddies with Harry Reid ? Never found in the constitution that any court can decide what rights you have and don’t have.
“If the court is honest, that latter suspension should be a winning point.”
If the judge is a Leftist, we know the answer to that…
I am heartened by all of the lawsuits to preserve our natural rights preserved by the 2A.
Now, when we start winning, I would like to see civil suits against the losing government entities. Those suits should endeavor to establish education in the rights protected by the Constitution.
They cannot be sued. They have absolute immunity.
And if you think a judge might ignore that… consider that judges ALSO have absolute immunity for decisions rendered on the bench. I don’t think they’re keen on putting asterisks next to that.
Note: municipalities do not have sovereign immunity… although lawmakers still immune.
No one should be immune from Tyranny. That decision is up to the citizenry.
When citizens fear the consequences of fighting for their Rights/Freedoms…More than they fear the lose of those Rights/Freedoms. They become Subjects and Tyranny prevails.
Keep Your Powder Dry.
Inconsistent application of their argument for shutting down licensing is also the subject of a couple of lawsuits in Florida. Our anti-gun Ag Commissioner was using that argument that she was just protecting citizens and govt employees from transmission of the virus during fingerprinting. What she DIDN’T do was shut down some of her OTHER licensing operations that also required fingerprinting. Now she has been caught in her hypocrisy. Hopefully that will come back to bite her in the next election as well as in court.
I believe her election victory was a dry run for stealing the Presidential election this November.
It isn’t that they can’t
It’s that they wont
Personally, I consider a state issue license to be in possession of a weapon is asinine to start with. The only way to actually comply is to be a mental defective.
‘weapon’ does not equal ‘gun’
We are at a technological point in society where most of the real issues with any of this could very easily be solved. There just is no desire to set people free. This entire process is so anti-american that that it hurts to know that so many Georgia residents are pinned down to a state of no advancement in life.
My Georgia carry license arrived in the mail about 3 weeks before the SHTF. Way too close for comfort.
I do not know what the problem is. Georgia is now allowing kids to get drivers licenses without testing.
Why can’t they do the same for these?
On second thought, I have a 2nd home in Georgia!! 20,000 teens who tend to have higher rates of accidents anyways now just cut loose !!!!
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