John Monroe, vice president and board member, GeorgiaCarry.org.

Gun rights group GeorgiaCarry.Org has sued to force Fulton County's probate judge to accept and process firearms licenses despite a statewide judicial emergency. 

The organization, dedicated to removing regulations and laws it believes infringe on the ability to acquire and carry firearms, has asked a federal judge for a writ of mandamus ordering Fulton County Probate Judge Pinkie Toomer and her staff to lift a suspension on the issuance of gun licenses put in place after the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia declared a state of judicial emergency March 14.

That declaration, intended to curtail the spread of COVID-19, directed Georgia courts to maintain only essential functions for the duration of the emergency, which has been extended through May 13. But according to the suit, the state's probate judges, including Toomer, do not consider issuing gun licenses an essential function.

The suit also seeks an injunction prohibiting Gov. Brian Kemp from enforcing a state law requiring a license to carry a handgun in public.

In a March 17 memo, the state Council of Probate Judges notified its members it does not consider concealed carry licenses an essential function. The memo also noted that the judicial emergency extended deadlines for license renewals, and that no temporary license was needed to replace an expired license while the emergency remains in force.

A council spokesman declined to comment on the suit.

Attorney John Monroe, vice president and counsel for GeorgiaCarry, said he filed the suit on behalf of group member Sara Carter because the Fulton probate court's decision to treat the issuance of gun licenses as a nonessential function violates the Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual's fundamental right to carry arms. Monroe also said a handgun is "the quintessential gun for self-defense."

Because probate judges are currently not issuing new weapons licenses during the judicial emergency, "If you don't already have a license, you are banned from exercising your Second Amendment right in public," Monroe said.

Monroe said he doesn't know when Carter, who has been a GeorgiaCarry member for several years, acquired the handgun she wants to license or whether she did so after the judicial emergency took effect.

A hearing is scheduled next Wednesday in front of U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, he said.

Earlier this month, the National Rifle Association filed suit in federal court in New York challenging restrictions put in place as a result of the coronavirus that the NRA claimed led gun stores to be treated as nonessential businesses. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's shelter-in-place directive did not explicitly list firearm and ammunition retailers as essential, but the NRA contended that officials interpreting the executive order have required "the closure of substantially all retailers of firearms and ammunition."