ATLANTA (AP) - A lawyer for the Atlanta Botanical Garden has asked Georgia’s highest court to reject a lawsuit that argues that the garden can’t order people carrying guns to leave the property if they have valid licenses to carry weapons.
News outlets report that the Supreme Court of Georgia heard a lawsuit Monday brought by the gun owner advocacy group GeorgiaCarry.org after one of its members, Phillip Evans, was escorted off the grounds in October 2014 for openly carrying a firearm. The lawsuit has already been dismissed by a lower court.
GeorgiaCarry’s attorney, John Monroe, says the garden isn’t private property because it is leased from the city, and therefore can’t prohibit weapons from being carried.
Michael Brown, a lawyer for the Botanical Garden, says a court has previously ruled that public property, when leased to a private entity, is considered to be private property.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.