Gun owners don’t think Constitutional Carry law will have impact on crime

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - More than a year after criminals broke into a sporting goods store in Douglasville and stole dozens of firearms in less than a minute, management at the store is not concerned about the new law contributing to further gun crime.

“We’ve been broken into, had guns stolen. I’m pretty sure that they’re using those firearms, they weren’t waiting on Gov. Kemp to sign the constitutional carry bill for them to be able to use the firearms that they stole from us,” Gable Sporting Goods owner Rome Smith said.

On Tuesday, Gov. Kemp will sign the new law at Gable Sporting Goods allowing legal gun owners to carry their firearms anywhere without a permit.

“Once you purchase a firearm, and you pass a background check, now you’re legally, you’re able to carry the gun. And that’s really what the bill boils down to is that we don’t, we don’t need permission once we own something. It’s ours,” Smith said.

Not all agree with the idea of a new constitutional carry law. State Sen. Elena Parent said the proliferation of weapons without safeguards is what makes our streets dangerous. And she’s not the only one who feels that way.

“Police chief in Savannah Roy Minter Jr. said, why now? Why is this coming up? Now? One of the concerns I have with this bill is more people leaving their guns in cars, and people leaving their guns in other places because there is more freedom to have that gun with them. And then that leads to thousands of guns being stolen and thousands of guns used in crimes,” Parent said.

Parent went on to say that more than 2,000 guns were stolen from cars in Atlanta last year. And back at Gable’s, most gun owners said that criminals will be criminals regardless.

“That thief is not going to person to somebody’s house or try to rob you in a car thinking okay, they don’t have a weapon now they know everyone could carry a weapon you have to think twice about it,” Gun owner Marlon Sam said.