ATLANTA – Rep. Dexter Sharper didn’t vote to allow guns to be carried in more places in Georgia last year. But when the so-called “guns everywhere” law took effect last summer and permitted firearms in bars, schools, churches and government offices, the legislator from Valdosta found himself applying for a license.

Sharper, a Democrat who works as a paramedic, said he didn’t want to be caught somewhere as the only person without a firearm. It’s a growing possibility in his district in Lowndes County, which now issues more than double the number of licenses it did five years ago.

While Sharper and his .32-caliber Kel-Tec may no longer be outgunned, he said he now realizes that his pistol is of little use without guidance as to what to do with it. He suspects other inexperienced, gun-toting Georgians know too little about the state’s gun laws, or how to safely use and store firearms, as well.

Sharper is proposing that those who get a license to carry firearms be required to take a gun safety class.

“I don’t want to see more guns out there without some type of training program in place,” he said in an interview at the Capitol. “I don’t have a problem with the right to bear arms. That’s in our Constitution. But if we can do something to make it safer, that’s where my heart is.”

Sharper is due to make his case next week to a legislative committee. There he’ll face the colleague who wrote the bill that Sharper says makes training a necessity.

Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, author of last year’s “Safe Carry Protection Act,” said this week that he sees gun training as an issue of personal responsibility.

Sharper wants to make it mandatory. His proposal requires people to take a course within three months of getting a license to carry. Gun owners must pay a $25 civil fee if they don’t take the class in time. If they never attend, their license may not be renewed.

Training will cover issues such as safe handgun use and storage, with an emphasis on preventing accidental shootings involving children. It also will explain what’s allowed by law.

A little more than half the country requires residents to prove they have received handgun training, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Those states include Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida. In the Lone Star State, for example, first-time applicants must spend at least four hours in a classroom, pass a written exam and then demonstrate proficiency in handling and even shooting a handgun.

In Georgia, some confusion over last year’s “guns everywhere” bill has been evident. In Valdosta, on the day the law went into effect, a man was arrested after a run-in at a convenience store. The encounter involved two men, each with a gun on his hip. One demanded to see the other’s identification and license to carry, then drew his own gun when the other man rightfully refused. (State law prohibits anyone – including law enforcement – from demanding to see a person’s license to carry.)

The man who drew his weapon was charged with disorderly conduct for pulling a gun inside the store, even though he did not point it at the other man.

Sharper proposes making sheriff’s offices across the state responsible for educating the (armed) public, by providing a class once every two months, at no charge to residents.

Not everyone agrees that last year’s law liberalizing where firearms may be carried has had much of an impact.

Tift County Sheriff Gene Scarbrough said he’s seen little difference. In Lowndes County, Chief Clerk Shelley McLeod noted the biggest spike in gun permits actually came in 2013, before the law went into effect. That year the county issued 2,165 licenses. Last year, it issued 1,945.

Scarbrough said he takes no issue with the idea of mandatory training – in fact, he agrees that more firearm education for the public is needed – but he objects to the proposal as “time-consuming” and “costly.”

“I’m sure there’s people who have gotten a permit who don’t know a dime’s worth of information about a firearm,” he said. “I agree with the ‘why’ but it’s the ‘how’ that’s going to be the question.”

Sharper is not proposing to spend any state money for the training. He said the cost is minimal and could be absorbed by local authorities.

As a House committee takes up Sharper’s proposal, the Senate is also considering whether to make firearms training mandatory.

Both bills will run up against advocacy groups like Georgia Carry, which opposes any measure that requires firearms training.

“We don’t like mandatory training because we think it’s a way of standing in between us and getting a license. It’s a backdoor scheme for gun control,” said Jerry Henry, the group’s executive director.

While the group supports training, Henry said it should be voluntary and tailored to individual needs. Mandates in other states add to the cost of the carry license or slow the process of obtaining a license, he said.

Gun training also doesn’t guarantee gun safety, Henry said.

“Life is life, and accidents happen,” he said. “There are no studies that will show that any state is safer because of mandatory training.”

Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., said common sense dictates that mandatory training will result in a safer community.

“It’s no different than automobile training or anything that is potentially dangerous that we would require some basic proficiency for,” Everitt said.