A coalition of gun-rights groups filed a federal suit against Georgia officials on Thursday demanding that the state reopen its gun-carry permitting process or eliminate the permit altogether.
The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) are challenging a Cherokee County decision to suspend its gun-carry permitting process as part of a broader effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Filing on behalf of local resident Lisa Walters, the lawsuit argues that the suspension implemented by Probate Judge Keith Wood violated the 2nd and 14th Amendment.
"The natural right to armed self-defense does not cease to exist when a person steps over the threshold of their home and into the outside world," FPC attorney Adam Kraut said. "By their elimination of access to Georgia Weapons Carry Licenses, Judge Keith Wood and Cherokee County have destroyed the right to carry handguns outside the home for Lisa Walters and others like her. This is not acceptable and shows the inherent and terminally unconstitutional defects of the State's license requirements."
The lawsuit does not just challenge the county's decision—it also calls into question the state's entire gun-control regime. The state maintains a general ban on gun-carry without a proper permit. The shutdown of the permitting process makes it illegal for law-abiding county residents to carry guns for self-defense even as Georgians in neighboring areas can continue to do so.
Wood declined to comment on the suit. Neither Cherokee County nor Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican who has allowed gun businesses to remain open under his stay-at-home order, responded to requests for comment.
The case is the latest in a nationwide campaign by leading gun-rights groups to challenge shutdowns that hinder the ability of Americans to acquire guns. Most state and local officials have allowed gun sales and permitting processes to continue, albeit at a slowed pace due to social distancing efforts. Some states and localities have used "essential" industry labels to shut down not only gun businesses but government permitting offices as well.
Lawsuits focusing on the permitting process have enjoyed more legal success than those centering on stores. In March, a North Carolina county sheriff was forced to reopen his pistol-purchase permitting process while Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf (D.) was allowed to continue his initial gun-store shutdown order by the state's Supreme Court. In April, gun-store shutdowns in parts of California were allowed to continue by federal judges in two separate cases.
Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder, said the gun-rights groups would continue their legal campaign so long as local officials "arbitrarily" target gun owners and buyers.
"This is the most recent in a series of legal actions we've had to file around the country because we've discovered that some officials have arbitrarily decided the COVID-19 crisis allows them to suspend the constitutional rights of the citizens they serve," he said in a statement. "We've been stunned by this pattern because such actions are not permitted by the Constitution. Authorities may not, by decree or otherwise, enact or enforce a suspension or deprivation of constitutional liberties."
The plaintiffs in the Georgia case are seeking to have the state's gun-carry law thrown out altogether so those who can legally own firearms can legally carry them without a permit—as is the case in 16 other states. Short of that, they are hoping to force officials to turn the permitting process back on.
"It's imperative that we stop the infringements of our Second Amendment rights under cover of a virus pandemic," Mark Walters, host of Armed American Radio and Lisa Walters's husband, told the Washington Free Beacon. "The judge in this case could continue to issue Georgia weapons licenses just as he chooses to continue issuing marriage licenses but he is not."