Gun permit applications up 79% in Georgia
By
NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, February 01, 2009
On the morning after the presidential
inauguration, Sean Ely was in
Cobb County Probate Court to apply for his first concealed weapons permit.
The Acworth builder had read that it might become harder to get a permit during the Obama administration.
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http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/09/41/47/image_8347419.jpg PHIL SKINNER/
pskinner@ajc.com
Cobb County Probate Court employee Melinda Carter reaches for Sean Ely’s identification as he applies for a firearms permit.
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jivansco@ajc.com
Anna Hoang trains in the handling of a revolver at the American Classic Marksman shooting range in Norcross, where the number of classes teaching firearms fundamentals has more than doubled.
“I figured I’d get it while I can,” Ely said.
Adrian Brown, an EMT student from Austell, was at the court office minutes later to do the same thing but for a different reason.
“I want to protect my family,” said Brown, father of two girls, ages 2 and 6 months. “I don’t think I have to walk around with a bulletproof vest. But in areas I know are high crime, I want to feel safe.”
Across Georgia, there’s been a dramatic surge in applications for firearm permits, and no sign that the trend is slowing. Statewide, 121,219 applications were submitted in 2008, up 79.2 percent from 67,640 in 2007, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
It fits with what’s occurred over the last year in other parts of the country, where dealers report that guns are flying off store shelves, when little else is moving.
The reasons for the surge in Georgia vary — for some permit seekers it’s based on political uncertainties. For others, it was a law change last year that opened up the places where a concealed weapon is allowed.
For still others, it’s about plain old protection. Long gone are the days when the front door could be left unlocked. More and more, locks don’t suffice and steel bars have replaced wire-framed screens. Some crime rates, property crime in particular, are up across metro Atlanta, from the suburbs to intown neighborhoods, where a recent string of violent crime has residents banding together in ways they might not have imagined until now.
In areas where high crime already was an issue, things could get worse before they get better, particularly as officials wrestle with having to cut public safety services to help their budgets. And in areas known to be safer, perceptions are changing — areas like Atlanta’s gentrifying intown neighborhoods.
In recent weeks, motivated by the shooting death last month of Grant Park bartender John Henderson, residents have taken their concerns public, showing up in force for anti-crime rallies, town hall meetings and community vigils to raise awareness and urge change.
In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington said “according to the data that we have, there are some neighborhoods where the data don’t go along with what has actually transpired in their community. We’ve had reductions [in crime] in a lot of those neighborhoods. And then, some of the neighborhoods that we’ve had an increase in burglary and property crimes, those neighborhoods haven’t had a large outcry.”
2nd Amendment rights
In
Cobb County, where Ely and Brown filed their applications, the increase in applications was even more dramatic than it was statewide. Records show permit applications were up in the county by 139.6 percent for 2008, from 3,660 to 8,770.
It caught the eye of
Cobb County Probate Judge Keli Wolk on Jan. 2 of this year, her first day in office. By 2 p.m. that day, 71 people had submitted permit applications, Wolk said.
“There are quite a few people in our license area filling out applications at most any time of the day,” she said
