Lawsuit: Gun Stores Are Essential During GA Coronavirus Pandemic
ATHENS, GA — Many Georgians feel guns are essential, but are the stores where you buy them considered “essential services” under the state's new coronavirus restrictions? The owner of one gun store in Athens thinks so, and he’s suing the government to prove his point.
The Athens Banner-Herald reports that Andrew Clyde, owner of Clyde Armory, is suing the Athens-Clarke County government over its shelter-in-place order he calls “an abuse of police power.” His lawyers, Mo Wiltshire and Kevin Epps, argue in their brief that there “is no rational basis that requires gun stores to cease their business operations.” The brief was filed March 24 in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court.
Clyde also is running to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia’s District 9, where Rep. Doug Collins, a vocal ally of President Donald Trump, is stepping down to run for the U.S. Senate.
Shuttering gun stores is as good as banning guns themselves, Clyde said, because it “interferes with an individual’s right to self-defense.” He said gun stores should be considered essential because they are necessary to maintain the safety of residences.
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According to Atlanta TV station 11Alive, two other Athens-area businesses have since joined the lawsuit because they say the shelter-in-place order violates the constitutional rights of healthy people.
Gun stores weren’t listed as essential in the emergency ordinance enacted by the Athens-Clarke County Commission on March 19. However, they were included in a list of essential services issued by Athens-Clarke County staff on March 23, the day before the brief was filed. Still, Wiltshire said he plans to go ahead with the suit anyway to ensure Clyde Armory and other gun stores will be considered essential businesses.
How gun stores are restricted during the coronavirus pandemic differs from county to county. 11Alive surveyed seven metro Atlanta counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Athens-Clarke, Bartow, Barrow and Cobb — and found that Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb do not identify gun stores as “essential.” Other counties have curfews yet allow gun stores to be open during their normal business hours.
“Ultimately, we are all first responders in our own emergencies,” Wiltshire said to 11Alive. “People are concerned and those people who have not previously prepared to face a crisis are now suddenly realizing ‘you know what, it’s probably a good idea if I had my personal firearm’.”
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This article originally appeared on the Athens Patch
