Georgia Supreme Court maintains state restrictions on gun carry for adults under 21
It will remain illegal for people under to carry a handgun in the bulk inhabitants places in Georgia after the state Supreme Court upheld state limits on the right to bear arms In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday the high court ruled against Thomas Stephens a -year-old who sued after Lumpkin County denied his application for a license to carry a handgun Georgia s Constitution says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed but also gives the state legislature the authority to prescribe the manner in which weapons may be carried The justices concurred that this manner clause was intended to qualify or limit the right to carry a weapon in Georgia Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr s office defended that interpretation but a lawyer for Stephens argued that Georgia s restrictions are rooted in a time before the U S Supreme Court began applying a higher standard against establishment intrusion into personal liberties starting around World War II The federal high court developed a standard of strict scrutiny and began requiring that burdens on fundamental rights be justified by a compelling state interest Stephens attorney John R Monroe declared during oral arguments last month Strict scrutiny should be applied to this occurrence because it s a fundamental right for people to keep and bear arms Monroe revealed However the opinion authored by Justice Andrew A Pinson mentioned Stephens and his attorney were asking the justices to import federal standards to guide their interpretation of the state constitution a practice we have regularly criticized and disapproved The opinion also observed that the state Supreme Court has previously backed legal restrictions on where guns are allowed for instance upholding a law that banned them in churches and courts State laws are presumed to be constitutional and the burden to prove otherwise is a heavy one Pinson wrote Stephens fails to meet that heavy burden here he added The post Georgia Supreme Court maintains state restrictions on gun carry for adults under appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta
