Rep. Tim Bearden is once again pushing legislation that would expand the number of places in Georgia gun owners can carry firearms, joining a host of other lawmakers trying to modify the state’s gun laws.

Bearden, R-Villa Rica, joins a group of other gun rights advocates planning a push to build on a 2008 measure that allowed those with permits to carry firearms into state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and mass transit facilities.

Following its passage, the new law was met with a handful of legal challenges, with a federal judges ruling in late 2008 that officials representing Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport could ban guns from the premises. Later, in a separate case, a federal judge ruled that the Atlanta mass transit system had the legal right to stop and question a passenger believed to be carrying a firearm, though the passenger in question claimed protection under the 2008 law.

Bearden has in the past condemned these rulings as “legislating from the bench,” saying the 2008 gun bill clearly allows law-abiding residents to carry a firearm while a passenger on mass transit.

Despite past legal shortfalls for Georgia gun advocates, Bearden said the greatest potential threat to Second Amendment rights could come from the United States Supreme Court. He said the court is considering whether the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applies to individual states, and should they rule that it does not, it will then be up to states to protect the rights of its gun-carrying citizens.

Bearden said it’s clear that people all across the nation are concerned that the administration of President Barack Obama will move to make it more difficult if not illegal to buy guns. Although nothing has been done on the federal level that would jeopardize gun rights, Bearden said it’s important that states act now to preserve those rights before it’s too late.

The legislation he is working on, a variation of House Bill 615 that was presented before committee in the waning hours of the 2009 legislative session, would expand the possible places owners could legally carry their guns, changing the current law to allow owners to carry guns in all places except for courthouses and prisons and jails, effectively ensuring that no unauthorized person would be allowed to carry a gun where inmates are housed or transferred.

Bearden said he anticipates the bill to be amended to limit the areas where guns can be carried beyond simply prisons and courthouses, though any changes will be determined during debate in committee or on the floor of the House during the 2010 session.

“We wanted to start the debate at that point,” he said. “There will be debate and comments and amendments to areas where guns are off limits, but let’s debate the issues as they come up so we can have the best legislation.”

There are those who object to the early version of the bill, though, citing concerns that allowing guns to be carried in more places will inevitably lead to increases in gun violence. Nowhere is this of greater concern than on college campuses, the site of a number of deadly shootings in recent years, said Tom Mackel, head of security at the University of West Georgia.

Not only are university campuses concentrated areas where thousands of students converge on a daily basis, he said, but they’re ripe with binge drinking and other immature behaviors that potentially put everyone at increased risk should students and faculty have ready access to a firearm.

“A lot of it has to do with the level of immaturity with people on the campus. We have the drinking issue, and there’s also a level of immaturity that you find on college campuses, and all that makes for a very dangerous situation,” Mackel said. “You introduce firearms into residence halls or you introduce them into residences, and you have a potentially dangerous situation. It’s a bad idea.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.