Georgia weapons charges range from misdemeanors to felonies with prison time, fines, and loss of gun rights. Even possession without use can trigger charges. A Newnan weapons lawyer can challenge searches, evidence, and protect your record.
Georgia no longer requires a license to carry a handgun if you are legally eligible to possess one. That change led a lot of people to assume the state’s firearm laws had generally relaxed. They did not. The offenses that carry real prison time in Georgia are untouched by permitless carry, and several of them are structured so that the gun charge is worse than whatever else you were arrested for.
At J. Ryan Brown Law, we defend people facing weapons charges in Hiram and throughout Paulding County.
This is the charge that catches the most people, and it is broader than most realize.
Under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-131, it is a felony for anyone previously convicted of a felony, in Georgia or any other jurisdiction, to receive, possess, or transport a firearm. The same prohibition applies to people on probation as felony first offenders.
Two things about this statute cause repeated problems.
Ownership is irrelevant. The statute covers possession, not ownership. A firearm belonging to a spouse, a roommate, or a relative can support the charge if the state can show you possessed it.
Possession can be constructive. You do not have to be holding it. A weapon in a glove box, a bedroom shared with someone else, or a vehicle you were driving can all be charged as constructive possession. Where multiple people had access, whose weapon it was becomes a genuine factual dispute, and that dispute is often where the defense begins.
This is a law that can cause significant confusion. This law prohibits the possession of a firearm while committing another crime EVEN IF the person is otherwise allowed to possess a firearm.
Under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-106, having a firearm, or a knife with a blade three inches or longer, on your person or within arm’s reach during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies carries five years, and that sentence runs consecutively to the sentence for the underlying offense.
Consecutive means stacked on top, not served at the same time. A second or subsequent conviction under this section carries ten years, and the statute provides that a second or subsequent sentence cannot be suspended or replaced with probation. The punishment is also not reducible to misdemeanor treatment.
The practical effect is significant. A drug case that might otherwise have carried only 1-3 years now carries an additional 5 years. Prosecutors know this, and the count is frequently added for exactly that leverage.
Under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127.1, carrying a weapon within a school safety zone, which includes school property, school functions, and school buses, is a felony carrying two to ten years if the defendant is not a lawful gun owner. If the Defendant is a lawful gun owner, then the charge is punishable as a misdemeanor upon conviction.
This charge arises far more often from carelessness than from intent. A firearm left in a vehicle during school pickup, a weapon carried onto property during an evening event, a person who simply did not realize where the boundary fell. The statute contains exceptions, and whether one applies is frequently the central question in these cases.
The stop and the search. Most firearm charges originate from a vehicle stop or an encounter that produced a search. An officer needs reasonable suspicion for the stop, and continued detention beyond its original purpose requires new justification. If the search was unlawful, the weapon may be suppressed, and without the weapon there is usually no case.
Georgia provides real leverage here. Unlike federal courts, Georgia does not recognize a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, so a defective search cannot be rescued by an officer’s sincere belief that it was proper.
Whether you actually possessed it. In shared vehicles and shared residences, the state has to connect the weapon to you specifically. Proximity is not possession.
Whether the underlying felony holds. A § 16-11-106 count depends on the underlying felony. If that charge is dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor, the firearm enhancement falls with it. Attacking the base charge is often the most effective route to defeating the gun count.
Whether a statutory exception applies. The school safety zone statute and the prohibited places statute both contain exceptions, and they are frequently overlooked at the charging stage.
Whether firearm rights were restored. Under § 16-11-131, a person convicted of a non-violent felony may seek restoration of civil rights through the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, and a pardon can remove the prohibition entirely. Whether a client’s rights were restored, and when, is a threshold question worth confirming rather than assuming.
Not every weapons charge involves criminal intent. People are arrested after defending themselves, and the firearm charge follows automatically from the incident.
Under O.C.G.A. § 16-3-21, force is justified where you reasonably believe it necessary to protect yourself or another from imminent unlawful force, and Georgia imposes no duty to retreat. Where the evidence supports justification, Georgia’s immunity provisions can end a prosecution before trial rather than merely providing a defense at it.
One important limitation applies. Immunity generally does not protect a person who used a weapon they were not legally permitted to possess, which is why the felon-in-possession question and the self-defense question often have to be handled together.
Hiram sits in Paulding County, where felony weapons charges are heard in Paulding County Superior Court in Dallas, part of the Paulding Judicial Circuit. Misdemeanor matters proceed through State Court in the same complex on Constitution Boulevard.
We represent clients throughout Hiram, Dallas, and the rest of Paulding County.
Gun charges in Georgia are frequently the count that drives the entire negotiation, because the mandatory and consecutive provisions remove the flexibility that would otherwise exist. That makes attacking them early worth considerably more than attacking them late.
J. Ryan Brown Law defends weapons charges in Hiram and across Paulding County. We examine the stop, the search, the possession question, and the underlying charge the gun count depends on.
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