I got the phone call about 3:15 this afternoon, and at 3:30, local news confirmed it. Sonny Perdue signed HB 89 into law.
Bear in mind, this does not go into effect until July 1st.
Frankly, I hadn’t expected him to sign it. It seemed most likely that he’d let it run to midnight and pass quietly into law without his intervention.
Sorry to sound negative, but he’s not exactly been our friend in the past. He has a habit of dictating things based on what he thinks is “right.” He’s refused to take a stand on gun rights either way, and letting the bill pass without his signature would have been a way of saying, “I didn’t support it, but I didn’t oppose it either.”
So no, I won’t be bending over to thank him. Any politician with a spine would have read the research presented to him, and he would have acknowledged that our state’s gun laws are antiquated, discriminatory and arbitrary. He should have supported the change openly, especially if he considers himself “conservative.”
He opposed repealing the nebulous “public gathering” clause from Code 16, and he told the House he’d veto any bill that allowed people to carry in churches, so that got stricken. Perdue, himself a fundamentalist Christian, can have bodyguards at church, but the rest of the parishioners will evidently have to hide under pews and count on divine intervention.
With that out of the way, it’ll be interesting to see tomorrow’s reaction from Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, as well as the editorial board at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, both of whom have been predicting blood in the streets ever since this bill started gaining traction. Take this erudite bit from yesterday’s AJC:
(…) the bill doesn’t hold up in the light of day.
There’s zero evidence that more guns on the street prevents crime. If anything, more guns produce more violence, and Georgia has a startling rate of gun deaths and injuries to prove it. And while the gun lobby keeps repeating that other states give concealed-carry-permit owners wide latitude in where they can bring their weapons, they don’t explain that most states have far more stringent rules than Georgia on who can get a permit.
Ms. Downey seems to be on a real crusade. Unfortunately, she provides no sources to back up her claims, and they’re patently false.
There’s a mountain of evidence that “more guns on the street” do in fact deter crime, and that the presence of guns in the hands of the law-abiding prevents bloodshed.
But hey, enough with the facts. Those are boring and troublesome things anyhow. After all, what’s important to liberals is how they feel.
And I hope Ms. Downey’s blood pressure is soaring right now.