THE LAW: New Bill Introduced Aims to Criminalize Unsafe Weapon Storage

Representative Mary Margaret Oliver has introduced House Bill 135 ( Crimes and offenses; establish offense of failure to adequately secure a firearm ) in the Georgia Assembly. The Bill has had five co-sponsor’s sign on since it was introduced. 

The Bill seeks to add the following language to the current law:

16-11-132.1.

(a) Any owner of a firearm who possesses, stores, or leaves the firearm in a manner in which he or she knew or should have known that another individual could obtain the firearm shall be guilty of the offense of failure to adequately secure a firearm when the firearm is obtained by:

(1) A minor and exhibited in a public place or while making a threat of violence; or

(2) Any individual, regardless of age, and used during the commission of a crime or during an act which results in the injury or death of such individual or another when such act was not the lawful defense of people or property.

(b) A violation of this Code section shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $500.00.”

In an interview with 11Alive, Oliver explained that the Bill wasn’t about taking guns away from people, but instead making irresponsible gun owners responsible when their guns get in the hands of criminals that then use it in a crime, or in the hands of children.