MACON, Ga. — Wednesday was the first day under Georgia's new gun law. Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill eliminating the state's gun permit requirement.
Hamp Dowling owns Eagle Gun Range in Macon.
"Every day, we see more and more people, new shooters," Hamp said, and some of those people are talking about Senate Bill 319.
Legislators passed "Constitutional Carry" on April 1, but Governor Kemp signed the bill Tuesday.
"The law's still the same, it's just you don't have to have a permit to do it, you don't have permission to do it," Hamp said.
The new law allows Georgians to carry a firearm in public without a permit, unless they're a convicted felon or mentally ill, so 13WMAZ asked Hamp about the buying a gun under the new law.
13WMAZ asked, "So in other words, when I come in here and ask to buy a gun, I am filling this out? Regardless of the new law?"
"Regardless of the new law, you're going to do this. You're going to have to do a background check unless you have a Georgia carry permit," Hamp said.
Macon-Bibb County's Colonel Henderson Carswell says Georgia law used to require a license to carry a gun. People needed to fill out an application in probate court, pass a background check, and pay a fee. Now, that requirement goes away.
"Giving normal, everyday citizens the right to carry that firearm, I don't think, is going to change things a whole lot," Carswell said.
Since the bill did not end the gun licensing process, the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia's executive director Kevin Holder says the permit still has a purpose.
"Georgia has reciprocity with still a number of other states across the country, whereby if a person travels outside of a state, as long as they have a permit where Georgia has reciprocity, then they will be able to carry that weapon there as well," Holder said.
Dowling supports the bill, but has some words of caution.
"I'm glad it passed -- it's a constitutional carry permit, a law, but there are people that still shouldn't carry. If you're going to purchase a gun for the first time, get some training. Don't think just because you own it, you'll be proficient in it, because you'll hurt yourself or somebody that doesn't need to get hurt," Dowling said.
Governor Kemp said he signed the bill because he believes in "the Second Amendment" and he wants "all Georgians to have the right to defend themselves."
Critics say abolishing the background check for a permit will make it easier to carry guns illegally.