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O.C.G.A. § 16-11-121 — Definitions | Georgia Code
O.C.G.A. § 16-11-121 (2018) Copy Cite Official Site Syfertize CourtListener Scholar Amendments

TITLE 16 CRIMES AND OFFENSES

Section 11. Offenses Against Public Order and Safety, 16-11-1 through 16-11-224.

ARTICLE 4 DANGEROUS INSTRUMENTALITIES AND PRACTICES

16-11-121. Definitions.

As used in this part, the term:

  1. "Dangerous weapon" means any weapon commonly known as a "rocket launcher," "bazooka," or "recoilless rifle" which fires explosive or nonexplosive rockets designed to injure or kill personnel or destroy heavy armor, or similar weapon used for such purpose. The term shall also mean a weapon commonly known as a "mortar" which fires high explosive from a metallic cylinder and which is commonly used by the armed forces as an antipersonnel weapon or similar weapon used for such purpose. The term shall also mean a weapon commonly known as a "hand grenade" or other similar weapon which is designed to explode and injure personnel or similar weapon used for such purpose.
  2. "Machine gun" means any weapon which shoots or is designed to shoot, automatically, more than six shots, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.
  3. "Person" means any individual, partnership, company, association, or corporation.
  4. "Sawed-off rifle" means a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder; and designed or redesigned, made or remade, to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed metallic cartridge to fire only a single projectile through a rifle bore for each single pull of the trigger; and which has a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length or has an overall length of less than 26 inches.
  5. "Sawed-off shotgun" means a shotgun or any weapon made from a shotgun whether by alteration, modification, or otherwise having one or more barrels less than 18 inches in length or if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches.
  6. "Shotgun" means a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder; and designed or redesigned, and made or remade, to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger.
  7. "Silencer" means any device for silencing or diminishing the report of any portable weapon such as a rifle, carbine, pistol, revolver, machine gun, shotgun, fowling piece, or other device from which a shot, bullet, or projectile may be discharged by an explosive.

(Ga. L. 1968, p. 983, § 4; Ga. L. 1974, p. 449, § 1.)

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

It is not arbitrary or unreasonable to prohibit keeping and carrying of sawed-off shotguns, which are of a size such as can easily be concealed and which are adapted to and commonly used for criminal purposes. Carson v. State, 241 Ga. 622, 247 S.E.2d 68 (1978).

Sawed-off shotgun.

- When a shotgun had the shotgun's barrel sawed off to 18 1/2 inches and did not have a full stock, causing the shotgun's total length to be less than 26 inches, it fell within statutory classification of sawed-off shotgun. Gilmore v. State, 157 Ga. App. 376, 277 S.E.2d 749 (1981).

In a prosecution for possession of a sawed-off shotgun, police detective's use of a yardstick to measure the barrel of a shotgun at less than 13 inches was sufficient to establish the length of the weapon. Thompson v. State, 214 Ga. App. 889, 449 S.E.2d 364 (1994).

Defendant's conviction for unlawful possession of a sawed-off shotgun was supported by sufficient evidence based on the state producing expert testimony at trial establishing that the firearm at issue was originally designed to be fired from the shoulder but had been modified into a pistol-like configuration. Lewis v. State, 292 Ga. App. 257, 663 S.E.2d 721 (2008), cert. denied, No. S08C1869, 2008 Ga. LEXIS 885 (Ga. 2008).

Cited in Barnwell v. State, 127 Ga. App. 335, 193 S.E.2d 203 (1972); Myrick v. State, 155 Ga. App. 496, 271 S.E.2d 637 (1980); Blankenship v. State, 223 Ga. App. 264, 477 S.E.2d 397 (1996); Adams v. State, 245 Ga. App. 607, 538 S.E.2d 508 (2000).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Gun firing under six bullets by single function of trigger not machine gun.

- Since a machine gun that fires less than six bullets by a single function of the trigger is not, under Georgia law, a machine gun, federal registration of such a weapon has no significance under Georgia law. 1974 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U74-91.

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