ATLANTA – It will remain illegal for people under 21 to carry a handgun in most public 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 20-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 government 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, said during oral arguments last month.
“Strict scrutiny should be applied to this case because it’s a fundamental right for people to keep and bear arms,” Monroe said.
However, the opinion authored by Justice Andrew A. Pinson said 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.