Georgia Castle Doctrine bill becomes law!

[neoncowboy]

Georgia Self-Defense Legislation Signed By Governor Sonny Purdue!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Today, April 27, in a ceremony at the state capitol, Governor Sonny Perdue signed Georgia’s “Castle Doctrine” (SB 396) into law.

Sponsored by Senator Greg Goggans, SB 396 was approved by the full House on a vote of 115-42 and passed the full Senate on a vote of 40-13.

Chris Cox, NRA’s chief lobbyist, stated, “On behalf of all NRA members and gun owners in Georgia, I want to thank Governor Perdue for signing this self-defense bill. When confronted by criminals, victims don’t have the luxury of time. They have to make a split-second decision on whether the best option is to retreat or to stand their ground and defend themselves or their loved ones. Now Georgians can defend themselves without fear of being prosecuted or sued by the criminal or criminal’s family.”

The “Castle Doctrine” bill removes the “duty to retreat” if an individual is attacked in his or her home, vehicle, place of business or any other place he or she has a legal right to be. This legislation also states that victims may use necessary force to defend themselves against the attacker.

Cox continued, “We thank Senator Goggans for sponsoring this bill and the legislators who supported it. As always, we also appreciate all the NRA members and lawful gun owners who contacted their representatives and urged them to support this vital self-defense measure. The Castle Doctrine bill is about putting the law back on the side of the victim, the way it’s supposed to be.”

I don't see where previous Ga. law had any 'duty to retreat'...and this story leaves out the most important provision of the new law: civil immunity for the victim in a self-defense case.

Great day for Georgia though.

We put a lot of pressure on the senators (rules comittee), house and governor and this is what happened!

Next stop, eliminate the 'public gathering' from our list of prohibited carry places! Some of us have spoken with Greg Goggans and are putting together a presentation for him explaining the current broken state of Ga's carry law.

We're going to get that fixed in the next (volatile, election year) session!!

 

[Z_Infidel]

That's good news, especially since I might be relocating there next year. BTW, how's the Marietta area?

 

[rmgill]

Great news. I was watching that bill and urging my State Senator to support it. I couldn't count on my State Rep, she's too hoplophobic. Anyhow, Sen Henson is a moderate Democrat (has a pistol of his own). I'll be working on him next go around for those kinds of bills. If you'd like me to come by and testify at all, I'd love to.

BTW, I'm waiting on my bill, SB27 to become law after the 40 days or for the governor to sign it and not veto it. Contact me rmgill AT mindspring.com We can try to coordinate on these. I too would love to see public gathering become a much more limited restriction.

 

[GTSteve03]

Glad to hear the good news! I would definitely be interested in helping out on the next go-round on the public gathering ordinances.

That's good news, especially since I might be relocating there next year. BTW, how's the Marietta area?

Marietta is a pretty busy city. All of Cobb County is getting rather full. South Cobb isn't the best area to live but the rest of the county is really nice, albeit very expensive for new homes these days.

Check out Kennesaw, just a bit north of Marietta. I lived there for 24 years, it's a very friendly town to gun owners.