Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams denied requests for an injunction against Georgia’s campus carry law.
Campus carry was signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) on March 4, 2017, and took effect on July 1, 2017. It allows concealed carry permit holders to carry their guns on public school campuses for self-defense. However, carrying in “dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and buildings used for athletic events” is still prohibited.
The injunction against campus carry was requested by six professors in Knox v. Deal. The professors argued that the final say on allowing licensed concealed carriers to be armed for self-defense ought to be up the respective Board of Regents, not the state government. The Valdosta Daily Times reports that suit requesting injunction was filed on September 25, 2017.
Gov. Deal and Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr were named as defendants.
On August 14, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Judge Adams denied the request on grounds of “sovereign immunity,” ruling, “Because the State has not waived sovereign immunity, and, to the extent Plaintiffs claims could be sustained against Defendants in their individual capacities, official immunity would bar such claims.”
The professors are now weighing whether to pursue the matter further via appeal.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.