Cobb County Gun Charges Lawyer
The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Generally, few Georgia laws restrict keeping (owning) firearms. Bearing (carrying) firearms is another matter. Although the Peach State is a “shall issue” state (authorities must issue permits if the applicant meets minimum qualifications) and gun possession laws are rather liberal, some limits apply. More on that below.
Gun laws try to balance competing interests, but a diligent Cobb County gun charges lawyer, like Andrew Schwartz, only cares about your interests. Therefore, our crack legal team hits the ground running, looking for procedural and substantive defenses. Then, Andrew Schwartz knows how to leverage these defenses at trial and around the negotiating table, so he obtains results that exceed your expectations.
Prohibited Places
The aforementioned bearing arms restrictions usually include a long list of prohibited places where no one, licensed or not, can carry a handgun. These places include:
- Courthouse: Not all courthouses are old buildings on town squares. Many courthouses are located in mini-malls and other nontraditional locations. The law is unclear about where the prohibited line starts. It could be in the mini-mall parking lot, at the parking spaces adjacent to the courthouse, or in the courthouse itself.
- Jail or Prison: This designation usually also includes probation, parole, and other court supervision offices. As mentioned above, these offices are usually in nontraditional locations. The prohibition could also apply to groups of probationers or parolees working on community service projects or meeting in classrooms.
- Polling Place: State law sets the cutoff at 150 feet from the door. Usually, polling places have signs which designate that line. But these signs aren’t always present and they are not always visible among a sea of campaign signs.
The same sign visibility issues apply to private homes and businesses which exclude firearms carriers. Usually, the state must prove the defendant saw the sign, could read the sign, and could understand what the sign meant.
What to Expect in a Criminal Case
Jail release is just the beginning of the criminal justice process. The Constitution’s grand jury indictment requirement does not apply to state misdemeanor cases. Therefore, the prosecutor’s office usually files charges based solely on the facts cited in the police report.
This paperwork usually takes several months to process. At the defendant’s first appearance, the judge ensures that the defendant has a Cobb County gun charges lawyer.
Indigent defendants are entitled to court-appointed lawyers or public defenders. These attorneys are usually top-notch criminal defense lawyers. However, the defendant has no input in the assignment process. So, it’s much better to partner with a private attorney the defendant chose.
Announcement hearings come next. Announcement is Legalese for “deciding what to do next.” As attorneys build defenses, they and their clients determine if a plea or a trial would be a better resolution.
A plea bargain does not mean an attorney surrendered. Instead, a plea bargain is a negotiated settlement between the prosecutor and defense attorney, much like a buyer and a seller negotiate over the price of a used car.
The trial could be a bench trial, in which the judge serves as legal referee and neutral fact finder, or a jury trial. Both alternatives have significant pros and cons.
Count on a Hard-Hitting Cobb County Lawyer
Criminal cases have procedural and substantive defenses. For a free consultation with an experienced gun charges lawyer in Cobb County, contact Andrew L. Schwartz, P.C. Virtual, home, and jail visits are available.
