ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers on Tuesday gave final passage to a bill that aims to void a city of Savannah ordinance that imposes fines and possible jail time for leaving guns in unlocked cars.
The state Senate gave final approval to the measure, which says cities and counties can't regulate how guns are stored. It also lets gun owners sue local governments who impose any such rules in violation of state law, collecting at least $25,000 in damages if they win.
Senate Bill 204 now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp's desk for his signature or veto.
Mayor Van Johnson and Savannah’s city council voted unanimously in 2024 to outlaw keeping firearms in unlocked vehicles, with maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail. They said the law would make it harder for criminals to steal guns in a state where lawmakers have widely abolished restrictions on owning and carrying firearms.
But the rules have left gun rights advocates fuming, saying that the city is in effect punishing gun owners who had their guns stolen.
“Ultimately what Savannah was doing was regulating citizens' right to have a gun in their car,” former state Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican from Trenton, told The Associated Press. “Their car was getting broken into, and they were going from a victim of a crime now to being a criminal. And that’s what we don’t want to happen going forward.”
Moore resigned from the Senate Tuesday after the bill passed because he filed to run for the congressional seat left vacant by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation.
Johnson said Tuesday that if Kemp signs the bill into law, the city will stop issuing citations.
“Obviously we’re going to comply with the law,” Johnson said in a phone interview with the AP. “So should the governor sign it, we won’t enforce that ordinance anymore. But there might be other ordinances that come forth.”
He declined to say what other type of gun safety measure city officials might consider.
Johnson, a Democrat and former police officer, has touted the gun ordinance as a way to make gun owners act responsibly without infringing on their rights to own or carry firearms. He said Tuesday that the number of gun thefts from unlocked vehicles reported to Savannah police had dropped 30% since the ordinance took effect.
“It’s a sad thing that the General Assembly says over 200 guns stolen from unlocked vehicles is OK,” the mayor said.
Georgia law already prohibits city and county governments from regulating firearm “possession, ownership, transport, carrying, transfer, sale, purchase (or) licensing.”
Savannah city officials have insisted since the gun ordinance took effect that they were regulating storage of firearms, something the state law didn’t explicitly forbid. State lawmakers changed that by adding the word “storage” to the existing law.
Gun control advocates said lawmakers were wrong to preempt Savannah's ordinance.
“Time and time again, young people in this state are told that our safety isn’t a priority. But this bill takes it a step further by actually punishing the cities that are stepping up to protect us when our state lawmakers won’t,” Nolan Tanner said in a statement. He is a volunteer with the chapter of Students Demand Action at Jenkins High School in Savannah.
In November, a Chatham County Recorder’s Court judge threw out the case of a man cited for violating the Savannah gun ordinance, ruling that it violates state law and the U.S. Constitution.
However, that ruling only applied to the case of the defendant who challenged the gun ordinance as part of his criminal defense. Johnson said at the time the city would keep enforcing it.
Johnson also said he is not worried about the additional legal liability and potential fines spelled out in the bill.
"I don’t believe it could be retroactive,” he said.
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
Republican Colton Moore, who resigned from the state Senate to run for Congress, poses for a photo outside the Georgia Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
FILE - Mayor Van Johnson speaks at a news conference, March 11, 2020, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will spend millions of dollars to cement control of voter registration efforts that have traditionally been entrusted to nonprofit advocacy groups and individual political campaigns, a shift that party leaders hope will increase their chances in this year's midterm elections.
The initiative, being announced on Tuesday, will begin in Arizona and Nevada with at least $2 million for training organizers. It's the first step in what could become the DNC's largest-ever push to sign up new voters, with a particular focus on young people, voters of color and people without college educations. All of those demographics drifted away from Democrats in the last presidential race, which returned Republican Donald Trump to the White House.
“It’s a crisis. And for our party to actually win elections, we have to actually create more Democrats,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Martin added that “we need all hands on deck, not just the outside groups,” as the party tries to win back control of Congress and break Republicans' unified control in Washington.
Democrats have spent decades relying on advocacy organizations and civic groups to register voters, but those efforts are generally required by law to be nonpartisan. Party leaders want a more explicitly partisan approach like the one used by Republicans, who have relied less on outside groups to register and mobilize their voter base.
Martin said allied nonprofits are “really important partners” that have “done amazing work to actually get people engaging in their democracy.”
"But in this moment right now, given the significant disadvantage that we have and the advantage the Republicans have, we actually have to do more,” he said.
The DNC initiative aims to reach non-college-educated young voters by recruiting organizers from a wide array of backgrounds, like gig economy workers and young parents, who have often been overlooked in the party’s grassroots efforts. Democrats hope that organizers' own perspectives and experiences will help party strategists learn how to connect with Americans in blue-collar roles who are disaffected with politics, whom the party fears it has lost touch with in recent elections.
“I think it’s incredible that Democrats are actually investing in reaching Democratic voters who have been left behind,” said Santiago Mayer, founder of Voters for Tomorrow, a progressive political youth group that is collaborating with the DNC. “We got killed on persuasion in 2024, and I think this is a really important step, fixing it and ensuring that we do not have a repeat of that in 2026."
The program will kick off with dozens of videos from lawmakers, activists and party leaders across the country. Democrats hope to boost enthusiasm for the program through interstate party competitions throughout the year.
The White House dismissed the fellowship as a facade for the party's political troubles.
“This is fake. They are broke. In debt. Been losing voter registration in every state in the union since 2024. We call this ‘PR,'” James Blair, a deputy White House chief of staff and the former political director for Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, wrote about the program on X.
If successful, the investments will provide a foundation that Democrats can rely upon beyond the fall midterm elections.
“This is a critical piece of the infrastructure that we’re building to actually not only win the moment in ’26 but to win the future," Martin said. “For us to put ourselves in a position to win in ’28 and ’30 and ’32, we actually have to keep doing this work and do it consistently.”
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin poses for a photo during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at DNC headquarters, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
