Georgia Carry & Phillip Evans WIN Five Year Legal Battle at Georgia Supreme Court

Opinion

Georgia Carry & Phillip Evans WIN Five Year Legal Battle at Georgia Supreme Court
Georgia Carry & Phillip Evans win Five Year Legal Battle at Supreme Court: Image: Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Multi-license GFDL, all CC-BY-SA

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- The road to restore Second Amendment rights in Georgia has been long and hard fought. Much has been regained through the legislature. Many of the infringements on the Second Amendment were imposed as part of the effort to keep freed blacks from enjoying their new rights as citizens.

In 1868, in what was known as the “Camilla Massacre”, black marchers and their Republican supporters had defended themselves with firearms, even though several of the marchers were killed.

In 1870, the Georgia legislature banned the carry of guns or knives at “public gatherings” in response to marchers protesting to claim their rights under the 14th Amendment. Variations of the law remained on the books until 2008.

In 2008, Second Amendment supporters, in particular, Georgia Carry, successfully lobbied the legislature to remove some of the infringements in the statutes, including the restriction on carrying knives and guns in “public gatherings”.

In 2010, the Georgia statues were amended again, restoring the right to carry throughout the state, to people who had been issued a permit. Private property owners were exempted; including those who had control of property through a lease.

Occasionally, local governments used the ability to lease property to private entities to restrict people from lawfully exercising their Second Amendment rights. The ruse was to lease property to a private entity, which would then ban the carry of arms, claiming it had the right to do so as a non-governmental actor.

In 2014, the Georgia legislature reformed the statutes again, to insure the exemption for private actors to ban guns only applied to leases of private property.

In 2014, the Atlanta Botanical Garden banned Phillip Evans from openly carrying his holstered handgun on the property with his family. AmmoLand News contributor Philip Evans, with the aid of Georgia Carry, sued to enforce his rights, as protected by the legislature. The Botanical Gardens has a 50 year lease from the City of Atlanta.

The case has been moving through the courts for five long years. The Fulton County Superior Court held for the Botanical Garden. The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the Fulton County Superior Court.

Finally, on October 7th, 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court held that words actually mean what they say.

They ruled a private entity lease of public property does not convey the right to ban firearms on the premises, unless the actual ownership of the property is transferred to the lessee.

That is what the law passed in 2014 says. From the Supreme Court decision:

On July 1, 2014, this Code section was again amended. Among other changes to the state’s weapons possession laws that took effect the same day, the proviso in OCGA § 16-11-127 (c) was amended by the General Assembly to insert the word “private” in three instances where it had not previously been included:

 . . . private property owners or persons in legal control of private property through a lease, rental agreement, licensing agreement, contract, or any other agreement to control access to such private property shall have the right to exclude or eject a person who is in possession of a weapon or long gun on their private property[.]

(Emphasis supplied.) Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 1-3 (effective July 1, 2014). This is the current text of OCGA § 16-11-127 (c), and it was in effect at the time the Gardens prohibited Evans from carrying a firearm onto the premises the Garden leases from the City of Atlanta.6

The Supreme Court goes on to say, private property is not public property, and public property is not private property.  The Supreme Court returned the case to the Fulton County Superior Court to examine the lease in question. The actual lease had not been entered into evidence.

Attorney John R. Monroe can be heard on this radio show on WABE.org. Toward the end of the interview, he is asked if he has read the lease in question. Monroe represented Philip Evans in the case. He says, in his opinion, the lease does not transfer ownership rights to the Botanical Gardens.

The court is yet to make that determination. No matter what happens with the Fulton County Superior Court, the precedent has been set.

Private entities may not, simply by leasing public property, prevent people who are legally carrying firearms from exercising their rights on the public property in Georgia.


Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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Phil1979

Thank you, Ammoland News! Great article, Dean! I appreciate the publicity on my lawsuit victory.

Now, thanks to this ruling, gun shows that hold their show on public property in Georgia such as at Jim R. Miller Park in Marietta cannot ban carry of firearms by attendees. I wonder if they’ve gotten the message yet?

Phillip Evans

StreetSweeper

Congrats on your victory; this may have implications in other states as precedent has been set.

Littlejohn1411

@Phil, your victory as StreetSweeper stated may be a bigger victory than some may think. Thanks for fighting the good fight!

mlhtd51

THANK YOU, Georgia Carry & Phillip Evans, Your Win is a Inspiration that Should ECHO Thru Out Numerous States, Congratulations on Your WIN !!

JoeUSooner

Oklahomans will likely have to take the same legal route as Georgia just did.

Here in Oklahoma, a number of private venues that lease public parks – such as Oktoberfest in Tulsa – have recently banned all firearms (concealed-carry or open-carry) at public events. The lessees have been repeatedly warned, but have not “cleaned up their act,” so-to-speak. Recently, the state legislature passed laws that make officials (who illegally prohibit firearms at public events) PERSONALLY liable, so this could get very interesting…

Oldmarine

Dean, I am old school when it comes to the question of Law. Why doesn’t someone with the money and gum-shun just start charging anti-gunners and Law makers with treasonous acts against the Constitution. In 1803 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that ” Any law repugnant to the Constitution is Null and Void ” . That essentially makes any law against the 2nd amendment a crime and ‘ Null and Void “. I see an attack on the 2nd as a traitorous act and criminal in content. I see the ATF as a partial illegal and criminal… Read more »

Firewagon

Excellent result, and good information! We need more people like Mr. Evans to challenge those that would “Infringe” on our ‘God Given’ rights. These wonks “We The Serfs” ‘hire’ to run our state and federal governments somehow forget for whom they work! Even this outcome was five long years in the resolution process. Some child born the day of filing is now starting school! This, sadly, is what these people do, deny, delay, obfuscate hoping the “Serfs” just get too tired and frustrated to “push back!” The Feds operate in the same fashion, example: It takes the ATF over a… Read more »