Articles

Dual Georgias Need a
Single Firearms Law

Guest Column by Bob Barr
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 25, 2005

Gov. Sonny Perdue may be trying hard to make us into "One Georgia," but the latest spat over Roswell's municipal firearms laws shows how much work it's going to take to achieve that goal. When I look at Georgia's cultural landscape I definitely see two Georgias: the rest of the state and metro Atlanta. In short, we're half Alabama and half New England.

A few miles outside I-285, we've got the Georgia that always has been, where folks eat Wednesday night supper at church, have a freezer full of venison from last hunting season, and vacation at places like Panama City or Myrtle Beach. In Atlanta and its nearby subdivisions we see an almost perfect antithesis, where church is a multimedia experience, vacations involve significant cultural experiences in places like China or the Galapagos, and meat comes only from the supermarket (preferably via an organic farm).

The most entertaining dramas in our political system often occur when these two cultural realities bump. That is exactly what is happening as the city of Roswell — which sits on the fault line between Atlanta and the North Georgia mountains — continues to fumble its way through a redefinition of its policy on when, where and why weapons can be discharged within the city limits.

The latest chapter in this story began with a legal bowhunter wounding a deer and tracking it into the front yard of a horrified homeowner in an upscale subdivision. In response, the local government in this north Atlanta city is overreacting by moving to outlaw the use of bows and arrows, crossbows, firearms — even BB guns — except at "approved" facilities or when a person's life is in danger.

It's absurd the town elders in Roswell have allowed this situation to become a national focal point over which pro- and anti-gun forces wage war.

Many people in the Atlanta suburbs in recent decades arrived from somewhere else (including, I must state in the interest of full disclosure, your columnist, who arrived from Northern Virginia in the late 1970s). This accounts, in large measure, for why we have two Georgias now. And even though many of these transplants are Republican, they're not conservatives, at least in any meaningful, philosophical sense. They speak of "freedom," yet want government to outlaw behavior with which they disagree, such as smoking in restaurants. They clamor for tougher prison sentences, but don't want prisons or detention centers anywhere in the vicinity of their cities. And, they don't want crime in their communities, but they're scared of firearms with which citizens and homeowners are able to defend themselves and deter crime.

We're seeing more and more situations in which new residents attempt to remake Georgia's culture; a culture traditionally based on individual freedom. In this particular situation, the Roswell debate runs fundamentally counter to the historically prevalent attitude toward defense of self and one's home in our state.

In reality, there is often little distinction between defending one's self and one's property. If I shoot an arsonist or carjacker, am I defending my person or just my property? If I shoot a rabid dog, coyote or black bear — all dangers faced by Georgia residents not only in rural areas, but increasingly in suburban and ex-urban areas as well — did I reasonably believe my life or that of a child in the neighborhood was in danger?

The only standard we should apply to the discharge of a weapon is whether a person acted reasonably under the circumstances and with due regard for safety. Using a standard that focuses on the motivations of criminals — whether they seek to harm person or property — is both legally laughable and practically unenforceable.

Roswell officials properly point to the hodgepodge of conflicting local ordinances regulating the discharge of weapons in different jurisdictions. Perhaps, it's time to take the matter out of the hands of local officials. Perhaps it's time for Perdue to step in and urge the General Assembly to send him a bill similar to that signed recently by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — the "stand your ground" law. This law makes clear that all Florida residents can discharge a weapon in their defense whenever common sense and the circumstances they face lead a reasonable person to believe their life or limb is threatened. If our governor were to sign such a law, it would get the City Council and mayor of Roswell off a sticky wicket largely of their own making.

Former congressman and U.S. attorney Bob Barr practices law in Atlanta. His column appears Wednesdays.

Copyright 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more information, visit www.ajc.com.

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