Ga. high court upholds ban on adults under 21 carrying handguns in public

ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Georgia’s minimum age to carry a handgun in public will not change, for now.

The state’s Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a state law prohibiting adults under 21 from possessing or carrying handguns in public.

The court ruled against 20-year-old Thomas Stephens, who, along with gun rights advocacy group Georgia 2nd Amendment, sued the state to overturn the law after a probate court denied him a weapons carry license.

Stephens had argued that the court should overturn its decisions in past cases “holding that the Georgia right to keep and bear arms is subject only to a ‘reasonable exercise of police power’ test.”

In its ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the trial court’s decision and rejected Stephens’ “quite narrow” challenge.

The justices decided the law does not violate Article I, Section I, Paragraph VIII of the Georgia Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms but specifies the General Assembly can regulate how those firearms are carried.

You can read the ruling below:

The court noted that Stephens did not allege the law violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but that he instead asked the court to “reconsider and overrule” over a century of precedent related to Paragraph VIII of the state constitution by relying on recent federal court rulings.

The justices concluded that “Stephens has not shown that the conflict between” the law in question and Paragraph VIII “is clearly unconstitutional or that the original public meaning” of the paragraph is different than how the court has interpreted it in the past to allow such firearms regulations.

“Most problematic, Stephens does not even say how or why that construction is not consistent with the provision’s original public meaning — at least not with any detail or real authority in — and he offers no serious alternative construction that would establish, what, in his view, the correct understanding of that original public meaning is,” Justice Andrew Pinson wrote. “Instead, he asks us to uncritically import federal standards to guide the application of a provision unique to Georgia’s Constitution — a practice we have regularly criticized and disapproved.”

In the months leading up to the ruling, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office had filed a motion to dismiss Stephens’ suit, arguing the law is “a reasonable, non-arbitrary regulation that does not destroy the right to bear arms.”

The trial court in Lumpkin County granted the motion to dismiss, agreeing the law was a reasonable exercise of police power.

Stephens and Georgia 2nd Amendment then appealed. The organization would later withdraw from the case.

The statute upheld by the Supreme Court on Wednesday exempts adults under 21 who have received military training. It also says adults under 21 can possess handguns and carry them on their property, in their vehicle or place of business, and for hunting, fishing or sport shooting with a license.

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