Savannah Mayor Stands by Illegal Gun Control Ordinance

I think I open a lot of stories about Savannah playing up the beauty of the city. Unlike many in Georgia, it was spared from the torch when Gen. Sherman made his infamous march to the sea, mostly because the city negotiated a peaceful surrender instead. See, back then, the city’s leadership was pragmatic enough to know that they were beaten.

Today’s so-called leadership? Not so much.

It seems that, despite having lost in court regarding their gun control ordinance, the city is still planning on enforcing it.

A Georgia mayor on Wednesday stood by an ordinance prohibiting guns in unlocked vehicles after a state judge issued a ruling declaring it unconstitutional. 

The policy, which has been challenged by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, requires firearms left in vehicles to be “securely stored” in compartments or in a locked trunk.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said the city would continue to enforce the ordinance after Chatham County Recorder’s Court Judge Brian Huffman Jr. handed down a ruling siding with Clayton Papp, who had appealed a citation for violating the ordinance. And the mayor promised to appeal the decision to the Superior Court, in comments to the Savannah Morning News.

“Our position remains firmly grounded in long-established legal precedent: the City is regulating the use and operation of the vehicle—not the firearm itself, which Georgia citizens are lawfully entitled to possess,” Johnson said. 

“We’ve had this in existence now for quite some time, and we have reduced the number of guns stolen from unlocked vehicles in Savannah,” he told reporters.

More likely, it reduced the number of people who reported their guns stolen from unlocked vehicles. Because there’s no way to determine how a bad guy got his gun, people who are the victims of theft may well just say they sold the gun to someone a few months earlier so as to avoid getting hit with a charge.

Or, they might do something shady and just say it was stolen from somewhere else, again, to avoid getting fined by the city.

But Johnson’s idea of the legal precedent here is wrong. It’s not the use and operation of the vehicle, which is clear because people aren’t fined for their stereos being stolen, or their backpacks out of the back seat of the car, or anything like that. They’re fined only for a stolen firearm, which means it’s the firearm that’s the active part of this measure.

So his claim that it’s about the operation of the vehicle is nonsense, and they lost in court. 

The fact that Johnson is standing by this is extremely troubling, and why preemption laws need teeth. There needs to be some penalty for such behavior, and not just for the city itself, but for everyone who voted for this nonsense. They need to feel some legal pain from this, and the longer it goes on, the more it is needed. 

Johnson and Savannah are breaking the law. They’ve been doing this from the jump, and even a court decision going against them isn’t enough to get them to stop. That’s because ultimately, this isn’t about this one ordinance. It’s about directly challenging Georgia’s firearm preemption law. If Johnson can get a court to uphold Savannah’s ordinance, it opens the door for other localities to start passing their own gun control measures. They may be designed as ordinances regulating vehicles or zoning, but their real purpose will be to regulate legal gun owners. 

Sherman didn’t torch Savannah. Johnson seems to be more than willing to do it, though.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

Help us continue to report on their efforts and legislative successes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.