In a significant legal decision on Wednesday, a judge in Georgia dismissed the charges against a man accused of contravening a Savannah city law that bans firearms in unlocked vehicles. The judge determined that this local ordinance conflicts with state legislation and the U.S. Constitution.

Clayton Papp faced charges after Savannah police cited him in August 2024 for allegedly breaching the ordinance. This local law imposes penalties, including fines and potential imprisonment, for individuals who leave firearms in vehicles that are not secured. Papp’s legal team successfully argued for the dismissal of the citation.

The decision was handed down by Judge Brian Joseph Huffman Jr. of the Chatham County Recorder’s Court. While this ruling currently pertains solely to Papp’s situation, it raises questions about the ordinance’s future enforcement, as Papp’s legal challenge was part of his defense strategy.

Despite the judge’s ruling, Savannah’s mayor has expressed the city’s intention to continue enforcing the ordinance, underscoring an ongoing debate over the regulation of firearms within the community.

The case has drawn attention to the broader conflict between local governance and state and federal laws regarding firearm regulations. (Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We’ve had this in existence now for quite some time, and we have reduced the number of guns stolen from unlocked vehicles in Savannah,” Democrat Mayor Van Johnson told reporters.

Johnson has pushed the gun ordinance as a way to urge responsible gun ownership without infringing on their rights to own or carry firearms. He said on Wednesday that the number of guns stolen from unlocked cars reported to Savannah police dipped from more than 200 in 2023 to just over 100 this year.

Savannah’s city council voted unanimously last year to prohibit firearms in unlocked vehicles, with violators subject to maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.

Proponents of the measure argued that the law would make it harder for criminals to steal firearms in the Peach State, where Republican state lawmakers have made it easier to own and carry guns.

“Concerns over firearms stolen from vehicles and later used in violent crime are in fact concerning,” the judge said in his ruling. “Good intentions, however, do not immunize legislation from constitutional scrutiny.”

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said the city will continue to enforce the gun ordinance. (Getty Images)

Huffman Jr. threw out the case in a ruling on Wednesday that declared Savannah’s ordinance “void and unenforceable.”

The judge said the ordinance violates a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating “the possession, ownership, transport, (or) carrying” of firearms.

He also ruled that the ordinance “burdens conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.”

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr celebrated the ruling as “a major victory for law-abiding gun owners, who shouldn’t be punished for the actions of criminals & thieves.”

While the judge found that Savannah’s ordinance is illegal, the ruling likely only applies to Papp’s case because the challenge was raised as part of a criminal defense and not a broader lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop further enforcement, Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, told The Associated Press.

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

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr celebrated the ruling as “a major victory for law-abiding gun owners.” (Getty Images)

A separate lawsuit brought by another gun owner aiming to halt enforcement of the ordinance was dismissed last year by a different judge in Chatham County Superior Court, ruling that the gun owner in that case lacked standing to file the lawsuit because he was not a Savannah resident and had not been cited under the ordinance.