Colby Gallagher
Colby Gallagher joined the Fox 31 News Team in April 2012 as a general assignment reporter. Colby hails from Sewell, New Jersey and is an avid Philly sports fan.
Read more: Local, Legal, What do the President's Executive Orders Mean for Southwest Georgia, Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, Executive Orders, Gun, Guns, Assault Rifles, Mega Pawn, Andy Aumsbaugh, Dougherty County School System, Tommy Coleman
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ALBANY, GA --
On Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive orders he plans to take pertaining to guns and also asked congress to increase bans on assault rifles and limit magazines to 10 rounds, but what does that mean for our local counties?
Pawn shops say some of the orders, like providing licensed gun dealers training on how to run background checks, may not be much different.
Andy Aumsbaugh of Mega Pawn in Leesburg says they already run a thorough background check on all people who attempt to purchase a gun. Aumsbaugh says unless the system is updated minute-to-minute, the only way a criminal can be issued a gun is if their charges are pending and have not been put on file yet.
Aumsbaugh says his biggest concern is the gun manufacturers, who will lose a good portion of their money if certain guns are banned.
Mega Pawn has seen an increase in sales of the larger clips and guns that may be potentially banned, which Aumsbaugh says raises an issue with a possible spike in black market sales if they are indeed taken off the shelves.
Also included in the potential executive orders are measures that include school safety, like reviewing emergency response plans and offering incentives for schools to hire resource officers.
Dougherty County School System Attorney Tommy Coleman says thanks to measures passed by the school board in previous years, the school system is in a position where it would be easy to make these changes.
Coleman says the school board passed a motion that created the Dougherty County School Police Department and also voted to allow officers to carry guns and have arrest rights.
Resource officers are currently posted in the middle schools and high schools, but Coleman says if the incentive to hire more includes money for those extra positions, they could possibly make changes to position officers in the elementary schools.
Coleman says while the officers are posted in the higher level schools in case of an incident inside the school, like a fight, those in the younger schools would be there solely for the purpose of guarding the children from an outside threat.
The remaining orders include changes made to health professionals such as clarifying the Affordable Care Act to say that it doesn't prohibit doctors from asking patients about guns in their homes.
Fox 31 reached out to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital to see how that would affect medical staff and the laws in place but the hospital declined to comment.
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