by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

A Georgia gun rights organization has called upon the Glynn County Police Department to stop harassing law-abiding citizens who are carrying firearms, particularly in the open, and has asked that the county police chief “put a stop to this conduct at once.”

GeorgiaCarry.Org, Inc. (GCO) is a gun rights group promoting the lawful carry of defensive firearms. It is based in Fayetteville.

According to the letter to County Police Chief Matt Doering, GCO member Stephen P. Belt of Brunswick has twice been contacted by county police officers and detained “in complete absence of any probable cause or reasonable suspicion” that he was involved in any criminal activity. One incident occurred in a bookstore on May 17 and the second encounter happened at a Denny’s restaurant on June 7.

It was apparently the second encounter that prompted the complaint letter, signed by GCO President Edward A. Stone. According to that letter, Belt was dining with his father when he was approached by an off-duty officer who asked to see his carry license.

“Even though he had no obligation to do so,” Stone’s letter stated, “Mr. Belt showed (the officer) the firearms license in the hope that it would defuse (the officer) and permit him to continue dining with his relative in peace.”

But Stone asserts that the officer “did not intend to let that happen.” Instead, the officer allegedly demanded that Belt go outside and put his firearm in the car. Apparently, no Denny’s employee or manager had asked him to leave.

Moments later, two uniformed officers arrived and Belt was “ordered to take his firearm out to his car.”

“He refused again,” the letter stated, “and requested that they leave him alone. He informed the three officers that they had no right to detain him, which the officers denied. He also informed the officers that they had no right to ask him to leave, as only the person in control of Denny’s had that right…”

The situation deteriorated, according to the letter, and one officer allegedly—and erroneously—told Belt that it was illegal for him to carry a firearm into Denny’s. Ultimately, Belt asked that a supervisor be called to the scene, and that officer turned out to have been involved in Belt’s earlier confrontation in May.

Stone’s letter further asserted that the officers told Belt he could not carry a firearm in public because it was in violation of a public gathering law. Stone claims otherwise in his letter.

A third officer allegedly told Belt that he did not “need” a gun “because that is what you pay the police for.”

Stone detailed several court rulings to support his complaint in the letter.

Glynn County Police did not return calls from Gun Week, but GCO Vice President John Monroe, an attorney, did. He said Belt had been apparently contacted by Chief Doering. This was detailed in Stone’s letter to the chief.