A 14-year-old student opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, killing four people and injuring at least nine others, authorities said.
The suspected shooter, who is a student at the high school, immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. He is being charged as an adult with murder. Authorities are still looking into how he obtained the gun and got it into the school.
The school shooting prompted multiple claims on social media about gun laws in Georgia. One of those claims is that the state allows people to carry guns without a permit.
“In the state of Georgia, just about anyone can carry a gun without a permit, without a license, and without registration,” one of the posters wrote on X.
THE QUESTION
Does Georgia law allow people to carry guns without a permit?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, Georgia law allows people to carry guns without a permit. However, they must be at least 18 years old.
WHAT WE FOUND
Georgia law does allow people to carry guns without a permit in most public places. This is often called “constitutional carry” or “permitless carry.”
People do not need what’s called a Weapons Carry License (WCL), which is often referred to as a permit, to purchase or carry a firearm in Georgia, according to an official state website.
That’s because Georgia’s state legislature passed Senate Bill 319, or the “Georgia Constitutional Carry Act,” on April 1, 2022. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law on April 12.
The Georgia Constitutional Carry Act removed the phrase “weapons carry license holder” from state law and replaced it with “lawful weapons carrier.”
In other words, the law did away with the state’s firearms license requirement in order to carry a gun. Instead, the only requirement is being legally allowed to possess a gun.
Before the constitutional carry law was passed in Georgia, state residents had to file an application and pass a criminal background check before the state granted them a WCL, attorney John Mascolo wrote for FindLaw.
There are still restrictions on who can carry or possess guns in Georgia, and where they can carry them.
For example, Georgia state law still prohibits people who have been convicted of a felony or who have been treated for certain mental health issues within the five past five years from carrying a gun. Under Georgia law, people must also be at least 18 years old to carry a gun in public.
Anyone under the age of 18 cannot possess a handgun in Georgia, though the state does not have a minimum age requirement to possess rifles and shotguns.
People also cannot bring guns to courthouses, jails, prisons, places of worship that don’t permit people to carry guns and state mental health facilities, among other locations, Mascolo said.
Georgia isn’t the only state with a permitless carry law. A majority of states have removed licensing requirements and allow largely unregulated concealed carry, nonprofit newsroom The Trace reported in 2023.
Other claims about Georgia’s gun laws are circulating on social media in the wake of the school shooting. For example, this viral social media post makes multiple claims.
Here’s what we can VERIFY about that post’s claims:
Background checks: Federal law requires federally licensed gun dealers to initiate a background check before selling someone a gun, but private gun sales are not subject to these regulations. Georgia does not require private sellers to initiate background checks when transferring a gun, according to FindLaw.
K-12 teachers are allowed to carry guns: In 2014, Georgia’s state legislature passed a law allowing teachers to carry guns at school if local school boards approve of it. As of October 2023, only three out of 180 Georgia school districts had approved teachers carrying guns, VERIFY partner station 11Alive reported.
No red flag laws: Red flag laws, which are formally known as extreme risk protection orders, allow law enforcement and family members to obtain a court order to temporarily remove guns from people considered dangerous to themselves or others. Georgia does not have a red flag law, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) says.
No bans on high capacity magazines: Georgia does not prohibit high-capacity magazines, which allow a shooter to fire more rounds of ammunition without pausing to reload, the USCCA says. Fourteen states currently prohibit high-capacity magazines, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
No secured gun storage required: Georgia is not among the states that have safe gun storage laws, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
No ghost gun regulations: Georgia does not have any laws restricting untraceable firearms, which are also known as “ghost guns,” according to Giffords and Everytown.
People charged with assault or violent misdemeanors can carry guns: People with felony or “other disqualifying” convictions, such as domestic violence, cannot carry guns in Georgia, the state says. Federal law also bars most convicted felons and people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes from owning guns. However, Georgia is not among the 15 states with laws prohibiting people with other violent misdemeanors from buying guns, Everytown says.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.