O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-138 (2019)

Defense of self or others as absolute defense

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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Defense of self or others, as contemplated by and provided for under Article 2 of Chapter 3 of this title, shall be an absolute defense to any violation under this part.

History

(Code 1981, § 16-11-138, enacted by Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 1-10/HB 60; Ga. L. 2015, p. 5, § 16/HB 90.)

Annotations

Editor’s notes. - Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 1-1/HB 60, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: ‘‘This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Safe Carry Protection Act.’ ’’

Law reviews. - For article on the 2014 enactment of this Code section, see 31 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 47 (2014).

PART 4 ANTITERRORISTIC TRAINING

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 10 cases (7 in the last 5 years), 2020–2026 · leading case: Floyd v. State, 898 S.E.2d 431 (Ga. 2024).
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Floyd v. State, 898 S.E.2d 431 (Ga. 2024). · cites it 56× “OCGA § 16-11-138 became effective in 2014, see Ga.”
Johnson v. State, 839 S.E.2d 521 (Ga. 2020). · cites it 17× “599, of which OCGA § 16-11-138 is a part.5 Code Section 16-11- 138 provides that “[d]efense of self or others, as contemplated by and provided for under [OCGA § 16-3-21], shall be an absolute defense to any violation under this part.”
Copeland v. State, 888 S.E.2d 517 (Ga. 2023). · cites it 8× “See OCGA § 16-11-138 (“Defense of self or others .”
Brundage v. State, 911 S.E.2d 656 (Ga. 2025). · cites it 18× “See OCGA § 16-11-138 (“Defense of self or others, as contemplated by and provided for under Article 2 of 12 Chapter 3 of this title, shall be an absolute defense to any violation under this part.”
Hill v. State, 321 Ga. 177 (Ga. 2025). · cites it 4× “668 (104 SCt 2052, 80 LE2d 674) (1984), for failing to understand the law governing a convicted felon’s statutory right to use a firearm in self-defense, which resulted in counsel’s failure “to ensure that the jury knew — either through an explicit instruction on OCGA §…”
State v. Remy, 840 S.E.2d 385 (Ga. 2020). · cites it 2× “2 in 2014, the General Assembly enacted OCGA § 16-11-138, which provides that “[d]efense of self or A person is justified in threatening or using force against another, or in engaging in conduct that is otherwise prohibited under Title 16, Chapter 11, Article 4, Part 3 of the…”
Stephens v. State of Georgia, 321 Ga. 651 (Ga. 2025). · cites it 6× “§ 16-11-138. The plaintiff here, Thomas Stephens, is 20 years old and wants to carry a handgun in public beyond the limited ways he can under current Georgia law.”
State v. Gates, 912 S.E.2d 673 (Ga. 2025). · cites it 4× “And I recognize that, while I have previously concurred questioning the intent of OCGA § 16-11-138, Gates was permitted to use a weapon if he was acting in his own defense.”
Floyd v. State (Ga. 2026). · cites it 4× “We explained that OCGA § 16-11-138 provides that “[d]efense of self or others, as contem- plated by and provided for under Article 2 of Chapter 3 of this title, shall be an absolute defense” to vari- ous statutes criminalizing the carrying and posses- sion of firearms in…”
Brown v. State, 847 S.E.2d 152 (Ga. 2020). · cites it 2× “But Brown shot Tucker in February 2014, and the Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014 — of which OCGA § 16-11-138 was a part — did not become law until July 2014.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.