Georgia

SB 319 (2022), effective April 12, 2022, amended O.C.G.A. §16-11-126 so any 'lawful weapons carrier' (anyone who would qualify for a Georgia weapons carry license, whether or not they have one, plus out-of-state license holders) may carry a handgun openly or concealed in most public places. I was not able to fetch the Georgia General Assembly's own bill/statute page directly this session (repeated timeouts/errors); this rests on consistent, detailed secondary summaries that quote the statute and bill number.

O.C.G.A. §16-11-127(b)(4): carrying a weapon in a place of worship is prohibited UNLESS the governing body/authority of the place of worship affirmatively permits it. This is an opt-IN rule (default no), not mere property discretion — though the penalty for a licensed carrier who violates it is only a fine, not arrest (§16-11-127(e)(2)). From 2014's HB 60.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127. HB89 (2008) legalized weapons-carry-license carry in restaurants serving alcohol; SB308 (2010) and HB60 (2014) further removed bars from the prohibited-places list (with owner permission for bars). No restriction remains on restaurants.

Georgia allows statewide permitless carry for qualifying adults ('lawful weapons carrier,' Ga. Code § 16-11-126 as amended by HB 1358, 2022) with no separate license required. No boat, vessel, or waterway restriction was found in Georgia's carry statutes.

O.C.G.A. §16-11-127(b) makes carrying in a 'courthouse' or a 'government building' a misdemeanor by default, but (c) gives license holders an express right to carry into a government building 'that is open for business' where 'ingress ... is not restricted or screened by security personnel' — if that building screens entrants, carrying (or trying to enter carrying) becomes a misdemeanor again unless the person immediately leaves when notified. In practice this means an unscreened city hall or DMV office is fine, while a courthouse — almost always screened — is effectively off-limits.

HB 280 (effective July 1, 2017) REQUIRES public colleges/universities to let GA weapons-license holders (21+) carry concealed on most campus areas, excluding dorms, sporting events, disciplinary hearings, and rooms hosting high-schoolers. Private colleges are outside the law entirely and may (and generally do) prohibit firearms as private property.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127(c): carrying on private property is unlawful only once the owner/agent personally informs the license holder they are not permitted and the holder fails to leave; a posted sign is one way to give that notice. Absent any notice, default carry is lawful.

GA's list of carry-restricted locations (O.C.G.A. 16-11-127) does not include private property generally; general criminal trespass law (O.C.G.A. 16-7-21) requires notice before presence becomes unlawful (opt-out default).

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127 (read via a Findlaw mirror of the official code) lists Georgia's restricted locations for weapons-carry-license holders — government buildings, courthouses, jails/prisons, houses of worship (absent permission), state mental health facilities, nuclear facilities, and within 150 feet of a polling place — and does not include airports. This matches well-documented real-world practice at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl, where Georgia authorities have repeatedly declined to bring state charges against WCL holders who reached the TSA checkpoint with a firearm, because Georgia law permits carry up to that point.

Georgia enacted permitless carry (SB 319) effective April 12, 2022, letting anyone 21+ (18+ active military) who can legally possess a firearm carry openly or concealed, including in a vehicle, without a Georgia Weapons Carry License.

OCGA §16-11-127 (unauthorized/government buildings) does not list hospitals among restricted locations, and no separate Georgia hospital-carry statute was found.

Georgia's unauthorized-locations statute (O.C.G.A. §16-11-127) lists government buildings, courthouses, jails, houses of worship, mental-health facilities, and areas near polling places — no rest area — and separately protects vehicle carry (§16-11-126). Verified against the statute text directly.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-126 reviewed directly (full text via FindLaw mirror): contains no provision requiring, or prohibiting, disclosure of weapon possession to a law enforcement officer. Consistent with the well-known understanding in the Georgia CCW community that there is no duty to inform.

Georgia's Weapons Carry License is issued only to Georgia residents through the Probate Court of their county of residence (O.C.G.A. § 16-11-129). County probate courts state directly: "The only legitimate place that you can apply for a Georgia Weapons Carry License is through the Probate Court in the GA County in which you reside."

Ga. Code §16-11-127.1(b)(1) bans firearms in K-12 'school safety zones'; the 'lawful weapons carrier' exception in §16-11-127.1(c) is essentially limited to a locked/parked vehicle or transiting through in a vehicle — it is not a general right to carry inside buildings or on open campus grounds even with a Georgia weapons carry license.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127 gives a private property owner/occupant only the right to 'exclude or eject' a person carrying a weapon — it does not itself make carrying past a posted sign a crime. The statute directs enforcement through the general criminal trespass statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-7-21, which criminalizes entering/remaining 'after receiving... notice... that such entry is forbidden' or 'after receiving notice... to depart.' In practice (and consistent with how Georgia carry-license guidance describes it) a firearms sign alone gives the owner grounds to ask the carrier to leave; refusal to leave is what converts it into criminal trespass. I could not find case law definitively confirming whether a sign alone (without personal communication) independently satisfies § 16-7-21's notice element for a business open to the public, so some residual nuance remains, but the weapons-specific statute itself is clear that a sign alone creates only an ejection right, not a standalone crime.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-173: counties/municipalities cannot regulate possession, carrying, transfer, sale, licensing, or registration of firearms via zoning, ordinance, or resolution.

O.C.G.A. § 21-2-413(i) (cross-referenced by § 16-11-127(b)(7)) bars carrying a firearm within 150 feet of any polling place while an election is being conducted; the only exceptions are peace officers and certified security guards — no exception for weapons-carry license holders.

No state-level magazine capacity restriction found.

No extreme risk protection order or red flag statute found in Georgia.

Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-122 generally bans possession of a sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off rifle, machine gun, dangerous weapon, or silencer, but § 16-11-124 exempts a person authorized to possess the item because it is registered per the National Firearms Act. This exemption covers suppressors, SBR/SBS, and machine guns alike — Georgia requires no separate state permit or registration on top of the federal NFA process.

Stand Your Ground by statute: Ga. Code Ann. § 16-3-23.1 ("no duty to retreat").

No Georgia statute requires background checks on private transfers; state law preempts most local firearm regulation. Confirmed via absence from Giffords' UBC list.