(The Center Square) – The Georgia Senate wasted no time in passing its first bill of the 2026 session, approving on the second day legislation that bars a Savannah gun storage law.
The Savannah City Council passed a local ordinance in 2024 that required residents to lock their cars if firearms were inside.
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 204, which allows anyone charged under the ordinance to sue the city for up to $25,000. The bill also bars cities and counties from making similar ordinances. Moore called the 41 people charged under Savannah’s ordinance “victims of a crime.”
“We are the supreme law making authority in this state, not some liberal municipality,” Moore said when speaking on the bill.
Moore is running for the U.S. House post formerly held by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, said the city supports the Second Amendment. The bill regulates the car, not the gun, he said.
“And this has reduced gun thefts by over 30% in one year in the city of Savannah alone,” Mallow said. “A gun in your care cannot protect you from someone breaking into your house.”
The bill passed 32-21. The bill cleared the House last year. It failed to get a two-thirds majority vote that would have immediately sent it to Gov. Brian Kemp.
