Middle Georgia cheers, jeers Obama gun pronouncement

President Barack Obama's announcement of executive action to tighten restrictions on gun sales drew mixed reactions Tuesday in Middle Georgia.

Politicians, gun shop owners, anti-gun activists and law enforcement officials weighed in on the president's plan to expand background checks on gun buyers and to seek to close the "gun show loophole" that would exempt many low-volume sellers from keeping strict sales records.

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said Obama is putting a personal gun control agenda above the constitutional rights of citizens.

"His proposal to limit some seniors from purchasing firearms by making their Social Security records part of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is beyond radical," Scott said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said in a statement that Obama's decision to use an executive order instead of going through Congress "has only served to undermine the Constitution and further polarize this issue."

But Bibb County Sheriff David Davis and District Attorney David Cooke didn't take nearly as hard of a line on Obama's plan. Both said there are elements of the president's plan they like, but neither proclaimed it to be the solution to Bibb County's gun violence.

Cooke, a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment, said he doesn't think Obama's move is a big stretch from current law.

"From what I see, he is simply clarifying existing law and how federal agencies will enforce existing law," Cooke said.

He also said he likes Obama's call for more research, policy and planning for active shooters.

Davis said he agrees with the president's call for more funding for mental health treatment in the criminal justice system.

"If you ask any law enforcement official, they will tell you that is sorely needed," he said.

Davis said most of the guns used in crimes in Bibb County weren't purchased in legitimate sales. Investigators make an attempt in every shooting to track down the original purchaser of the gun, he said. Most often what they find is that perpetrators got the gun either by theft or a street sale, he said.

Guns obtained illegally is why some say Obama's talk about background checks for online sales and gun show sales effectively changes little.

"I've bought guns online before ... and when you buy a gun online, they don't ship it to you, they ship it to an FFL," a legal dealer who has a Federal Firearms License, said state Rep. Health Clark, R-Warner Robins. The FFL holder, he said, sees to the background check.

But Clark said he isn't sure tighter regulations will deter people set on doing wrong.

"The people with criminal intent are going to find a way to get a firearm no matter what kind of laws you make," he said.

The Second Amendment has been a first-order issue with the Houston County lawmaker. He has filed a bill in the state House that would lift the near-total ban on licensed concealed carry on Georgia's public university and college campuses.

"I would like to find ways to make sure the law-abiding are able to protect and defend themselves," he said.

Obama said his order expands the requirement to run a background check on buyers to include anyone "in the business of" gun sales. That would include sellers at guns shows and flea markets, and other private sellers without a federal firearm license.

Bill Barnwell of Warner Robins said he sells a gun about once every year or two. He didn't think the change would apply to him, but he opposes it.

"My point of view is that the criminals are doing the crimes, not the guns," he said. "I don't see this making a difference."

But Lindsey Donovan, an anti-gun violence activist, said tighter background checks will drive down gun violence.

"There's not a 100 percent way to stop everything, but this will decrease what we are seeing now," said Donovan, leader of the Georgia Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense America, a national grass-roots organization that wants to fight gun violence.

She said background checks for every gun transaction would be positive -- even when it's a private sale by someone who might sell a single firearm in a year.

The boss of a very visible Georgia gun carry lobby did not like what Obama outlined in his nationally televised speech Tuesday. Jerry Henry, executive director of GeorgiaCarry.Org, said he thinks Obama and his allies want universal background checks and transfer records for all guns sales and gifts, private and commercial.

Henry said those background checks won't stop criminals.

"Criminals do not go to gun stores or gun shows to buy firearms," Henry said.

And the records would build an inventory of who owns all legal guns in the country, he said.

"The federal government could come into your house, look through everything you have to see if you have any guns that aren't on the list," he said.

Donovan, the Obama supporter, said better gun laws will save lives. The "gun lobby" Obama attacked in his speech does not speak for her, she said.

"I don't want your gun. I've got my own," Donovan said.

Georgia last overhauled its gun laws in 2014, when it opened up most public buildings that don't have security at the door -- such as libraries -- to licensed concealed carry. It also lifted the state ban on licensed concealed guns in places of worship, leaving it up to each church, mosque, synagogue and temple governing body to decide if it wants to prohibit arms.

But under state law, cities and counties cannot make local rules on guns any tighter than Georgia law. Some try to cut down on gun violence without laws. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has held gun buy-back days: $50 for pistols and $100 for bigger guns. Donovan pointed out that in her city, Savannah, the police department started a program called "End Gun Violence: Step Forward." It aims to both prosecute gang members responsible for violence but also to offer social services for people who want to escape violence and gang life.

The Savannah program takes time and money, said Donovan, but are a way of cutting violence when the law cannot be changed.

Howard Reed, proprietor of Howard's Pawn & Jewelry in Macon, which sells guns, said he doesn't like to see regulations for people who are collectors and who sell guns they've acquired over the years.

"Even if this winds up good for our business, I hate to see any more of our individual rights slip away," Reed said. "I think the side that's anti-gun, they're content to get a little bit at a time, and it's like we know this isn't gonna solve the problem. So guess what? A year or two later, if (Hillary Clinton's) president, it'll be something else."

Harry DeHart, a gun dealer who runs Firearms Traders on Pio Nono Avenue in Macon, thinks the Obama measure is illegal.

"The president does not have the right to write laws, and it'll get overturned in the Supreme Court the first time it's challenged," DeHart said Tuesday.

He added that the Obama initiative "will affect people trying to sell guns. They won't be able to do it because they cannot do federal background checks without going through a dealer. They're gonna have to come to a dealer every time they want to sell a gun, and they're going to have to pay for it."

DeHart said he used to participate in online sales but doesn't anymore, so the plan won't affect him.

DeHart also said gun shows provide a way to buy guns in more ways than one.

"There's more guns sold in the parking lots at gun shows than there is inside the gun shows," he said.

Asked if that was legal, DeHart laughed and said that on Monday it was, but "I don't know whether it is today."

Telegraph writer Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this report. To contact writer Maggie Lee, email her at mlee@macon.com. To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call him at 478-256-9725.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Middle Georgia cheers, jeers Obama gun pronouncement ."