Georgia Democrats responded with widespread cries for increased gun regulations following the mass shooting in Midtown on Wednesday. Republicans, meanwhile, were largely silent.
Around noon on Wednesday, police say a lone shooter fired a gun in a waiting room of an upper-level office at the Northside Hospital Midtown medical building on West Peachtree Street. The shooting killed one and wounded four others.
The area was under a shelter in-place order for hours while a widespread search was conducted for the suspect.
Hours later, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens stood with public safety officials at the intersection of 12th Street and West Peachtree Street to address the media as police sirens rang out all around him. The first-term mayor said he had already been in touch with state leaders and White House officials and would soon speak with victim’s families.
“As you know, one is deceased and four are fighting for their lives at Grady Hospital,” he said. “We’re prayerful that they pull through.”
After waiting to release a statement until the suspect was in custody, Gov. Brian Kemp thanks law enforcement officers for their work.
“These heroes demonstrated yet again their professionalism, courage, and unwavering dedication to protecting their fellow Georgians,” he said in a statement. “With public safety partners like them on all levels, we remain vigilant against such acts of heartless violence in our communities.”
One state lawmaker was among residents in Midtown whose day was suddenly jolted when police enacted the shelter-in-place order. State Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Atlanta, was meeting a friend for lunch at Pasta da Pulcinella next door to where the shootings happened.
At one point while in lockdown, McLaurin tweeted: “We don’t have to live like this.”
As information on the incident was slowly released by public safety officials, familiar calls for a crack down on guns came from both local and federal Democrats.
Atlanta City Councilman Amir Farohki — whose district is home to the medical building where the shooting took place — quickly called for more restrictions.
“Gun violence has become a daily occurrence in our country,” he said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We cannot let it become normalized. The time is past due for common sense gun reform. We all deserve to feel safe everywhere.”
More than 600 miles away, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock echoed similar sentiments and took to the lectern on the floor of the Senate. He said his two children were among the many students whose schools went into lockdown on Wednesday due to the shooting.
“It is not right for us to live in a nation where nobody is safe, no matter where they are,” he said, adding that Americans aren’t safe in schools, movie theaters, workplaces or grocery stores. “And now today we can add medical facilities to that list.”
Gun safety legislation enacted during President Joe Biden’s term in office, Warnock said, doesn’t go far enough to cut down on the country’s gun violence crisis.
He urged his colleague on both sides of the aisle to do more.
“Shame on us if we allow this to happen and we do absolutely nothing,” he said.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took to social media as details emerged that all of the victims had been women, ranging in age from 25 to 71 years old.
“I didn’t think that my heart could sink any deeper,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, who lost her son to gun violence, said that the country’s seemingly constant string of mass shootings will continue if not addressed.
“Our nation is under siege from gun violence,” she tweeted. “It will not end until we find the courage to act. Our `leaders’ who refuse to act are complicit.”
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