Judge Rules Savannah Prohibition Against Guns in Unlocked Cars ‘Unenforceable’

Recorder’s Court Judge Brian Joseph Huffman Jr. on Wednesday dismissed charges against Clayton Papp, noting Savannah’s prohibition against guns in unlocked cars is “unenforceable.”

FOX News reported Savannah adopted the prohibition last year. The prohibition “imposes fines and possible jail time for leaving guns in unlocked cars.”

In August 2024, Papp was cited for violating the prohibition, but the charges against him were thrown out by Huffman Jr.

The Associated Press pointed out Huffman Jr. described the prohibition as “void and unenforceable,” noting that the ban “burdens conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.”

Georgia State University professor Anthony Michael Kreis explained that the ruling is most likely limited in scope, applying only to Papp’s case, because the challenge to the prohibition was raised in a criminal defense rather than a broader challenge aimed at usurping the ban.

Kreis observed, “In theory, the city could continue to enforce the ordinance and leave it to individual defendants to raise this question again as a defense.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.