Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin had a press conference in Atlanta City Hall recently trying to drum up opposition to House Bill 89, currently sitting on Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s desk. The entire event reaffirmed why Governor Perdue should sign HB89.
Despite holding the press conference in a Public Gathering location (publicly owned building) and behind metal detectors, the Mayor doesn’t feel safe enough within her own building to dismiss her security. At least three members of the Atlanta Police Department, in plain clothes and armed, guarded the Mayor during the conference. Deep down in her heart, she knows that all the gun laws, public gathering bans, and security in the world will not protect her from violent predators. While she hides behind a phallanx of well armed Police Officers paid for by the taxpayers, she demands that those same taxpayers and all citizens of Georgia be denied the ability to defend themselves and their families.
Earlier this year when GeorgiaCarry.Org held a rally in support of comprehensive reform of Georgia’s gun laws, over 125 Georgians took time off of work and traveled to the Capital to ask for change. Many drove hours to attend. That day was chilly and rainy, traffic was bad, and yet they attended. In contrast, the opponents of HB 89 could only muster 23 members of Atlanta’s political elite, most of whom were being paid by the taxpayers to attend the indoor press conference.
The transcript is here.
The people opposing HB89 are Atlanta’s political elite. The people supporting HB89 are the real citizens of Georgia.
Ron Wolf is the CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association. This group is in a tizzy over the fact that House Bill 89 would allow the carrying of a gun into a restaurant that derives at least 50% of its revenue from food - meaning Red Lobster, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, etc. It would not include any bar, pub, or tavern, and it would not allow the gun owner to drink any alcohol.
Ron is quick to forget that 80% of his member restaurants do not serve alcohol, meaning it is already legal to carry a gun (concealed or open) in such places. He is also quick to forget that the majority of states already allow the carrying of a gun in a restaurant that derives at least 50% of its revenue from food. But never let facts get in the way of a good Liberal argument:
“We have concerns about liability in a crowded restaurant. We also know the fact of mixing alcohol and mixing weapons is simply bad business…” What liability is he referring to? Would that be the same liability that he shirks after serving an already drunk patron more glasses of booze, and then claiming that it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault? The restaurants have absolutely no qualms about serving someone more than one glass of beer or wine and them allowing them to drive home, killing far more innocent people that someone with a gun in their holster. They mix alcohol and automobiles each and every day hundreds of times yet I don’t see the empathetic Mr. Wolf wringing his hands about that.
It’s called “hypocritical”, Mr. Wolfe.
Atlanta, House Bill 89, Georgia, Sonny Perdue, Ron Wolf, Georgia Restaurant Association, gun owner
