Georgia judge declares city ordinance banning guns in unlocked cars as ‘unenforceable’

A Georgia judge on Wednesday tossed out the case against a man who was cited for violating a Savannah city ordinance prohibiting guns in unlocked vehicles, ruling that the ordinance violates state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Clayton Papp was cited by Savannah police for violating the ordinance, which imposes fines and possible jail time for leaving guns in unlocked cars, in August 2024. His attorney asked the judge presiding over his case to throw out the citation.

The ruling by Chatham County Recorder’s Court Judge Brian Joseph Huffman Jr. likely only applies to Papp’s case, as he challenged the ordinance as part of his criminal defense.

Savannah’s mayor said the city will continue to enforce the rule.

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“We’ve had this in existence now for quite some time, and we have reduced the number of guns stolen from unlocked vehicles in Savannah,” Democrat Mayor Van Johnson told reporters.

Johnson has pushed the gun ordinance as a way to urge responsible gun ownership without infringing on their rights to own or carry firearms. He said on Wednesday that the number of guns stolen from unlocked cars reported to Savannah police dipped from more than 200 in 2023 to just over 100 this year.

Savannah’s city council voted unanimously last year to prohibit firearms in unlocked vehicles, with violators subject to maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.

Proponents of the measure argued that the law would make it harder for criminals to steal firearms in the Peach State, where Republican state lawmakers have made it easier to own and carry guns.

“Concerns over firearms stolen from vehicles and later used in violent crime are in fact concerning,” the judge said in his ruling. “Good intentions, however, do not immunize legislation from constitutional scrutiny.”

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Huffman Jr. threw out the case in a ruling on Wednesday that declared Savannah’s ordinance “void and unenforceable.”

The judge said the ordinance violates a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating “the possession, ownership, transport, (or) carrying” of firearms.

He also ruled that the ordinance “burdens conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.”

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr celebrated the ruling as “a major victory for law-abiding gun owners, who shouldn’t be punished for the actions of criminals & thieves.”

While the judge found that Savannah’s ordinance is illegal, the ruling likely only applies to Papp’s case because the challenge was raised as part of a criminal defense and not a broader lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop further enforcement, Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, told The Associated Press.

“In theory, the city could continue to enforce the ordinance and leave it to individual defendants to raise this question again as a defense,” Kreis said.

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A separate lawsuit brought by another gun owner aiming to halt enforcement of the ordinance was dismissed last year by a different judge in Chatham County Superior Court, ruling that the gun owner in that case lacked standing to file the lawsuit because he was not a Savannah resident and had not been cited under the ordinance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.