Congresswoman Lucy McBath says she grieved on Mother’s Day not just for her own loss but for the one experienced by another mother she has never met.
McBath’s teenage son, Jordan Davis, was killed in 2012 by a man who complained about the teenager’s loud music. And recently, she watched the video of Ahmaud Arbery being shot and killed when he jogged down a street not far from his Brunswick home.
Arbery’s death brings back the same sense of hopelessness she once felt, McBath told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an exclusive interview.
“You do everything you believe that you're doing right, and at the end of the day it still doesn’t matter because they are young, black males,” McBath said.
After her son’s death, she became a gun control activist and entered politics, winning Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in 2018. Now she faces a likely rematch with the woman she held the seat before her: Karen Handel.
Handel’s campaign platform reflects both support for the Second Amendment -- she says she is proud to have earned an “A” rating from the NRA -- and that she is concerned about mass shootings and wants to find ways to prevent them.
Handel told the AJC that she was also troubled by the footage of Arbery’s shooting.
"I’m horrified by what I saw on the video, and my heart aches for Ahmaud and his family,” she said in a statement. “I appreciate the leadership of the Governor and the Attorney General that led to the arrests. I’ve seen incredible unity across racial and partisan lines that local authorities mishandled this case and a full investigation is needed."
The issue of gun rights and gun control is likely to come up on the campaign trail like it did when the two faced off in 2018. They both are troubled by Arbery’s death and mass shootings in America, but they are likely to have different opinions on how to prevent these incidents from happening.
Read more: DOJ considering hate crime charges in Ahmaud Arbery murder case
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