Atlanta Presbytery seeks stricter gun regulations By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, May 25, 2000 The next to last overture unholstered for consideration by the 212th General Assembly calls for raising the minimum age to 21 for handgun purchases and licensing all gun owners. Overture 00-95 from the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta is a tougher version of what went through the 211th General Assembly in 1999 and more in line with what the 1998 General Assembly did to shoot down gun ownership. (The last overture logged in for the General Assembly is numbered 00-96.) Pro-hunting overtures In 1999, commissioners approved two overtures from Alaska, one in support of "legitimate possession and use of firearms in hunting, the maintenance of a subsistence lifestyle, target-shooting, collecting and other recreational sports," and the other denoting that previous General Assembly actions calling for licensing and for Presbyterians to give up their handguns "would not cover shotguns and rifles legitimately used by sportsmen." In 1998, however, the General Assembly took dead aim at handgun ownership without regard to hunting or sports users. Commissioners approved an overture to work "intentionally to remove handguns and assault weapons from our homes and communities." Hundreds protest action That action touched off a firestorm. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), said the assembly received about 750 letters, calls and e-mails in reaction to the gun statement, most of them negative. He said the responses were as many as the assembly had received previously on any issue. (In February 2000, the General Assembly Council received more than 1,000 letters, calls and e-mails opposing additional funding for the National Council of Churches.) Overture 00-95 calls for: Legislation raising the minimum age to 21 years of age for private handgun ownership and possession, and the licensing of all gun owners in the same way that drivers of motor vehicles are licensed with the requirement that such licenses be presented with picture identification before gun purchases are made; Laws mandating child-access prevention governing the storage and handling of weapons in the home, with legal consequences for those who allow children unsupervised access to weapons; Laws banning all forms of assault weapons; Laws requiring the installation of safety devices on all weapons; Legislation strictly regulating the purchase, registration, and merchandising of all firearms, along with laws enforcing background checks and three-working-day waiting periods before purchases.

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