There are many memories from the last few years of parenting that are fuzzy. But there is one conversation with my daughter that haunts me. She was beginning 4th grade, so we made the annual pilgrimage to the store to buy school supplies. As she picked through the rack of backpacks, she turned to me and said that what she really wanted was a bulletproof backpack.
It stopped me in my tracks.
The news of the slaughter of so many 3rd and 4th graders – babies – in Uvalde, instantly took me back to that conversation. It brought home to me that it could have been her, or my son. Had we just been lucky?
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
I grew up in rural, small-town Georgia. I understand and respect the right to bear arms. I also understand that the right to bear arms is not at odds with policies that keep our families safe from gun violence. That’s why as a state senator for the last five years, I tried everything in my power to get commonsense gun safety reforms passed. Keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. Criminal background checks. Red flag laws. Measures that were reasonable and that the majority of Georgians support. Privately, many of my Republican colleagues told me they were also supportive but couldn’t do so openly. The power of the gun lobby outweighed any attempt by me or so many other mothers to protect our children and our communities.
The gun lobby’s rallying cry is that compromise is a slippery slope. It’s tragically ironic that the basis of their argument is a logical fallacy; every one of us in our daily lives has to take a stand on that slippery slope. Legislators most of all.
This zero-compromise approach has worked for the gun lobby. This last session, Georgia’s governor and Republican legislators delivered a devastating blow for our community’s safety but a big win for the gun lobby by pushing through a bill coined “constitutional carry.” A deceiving name for a bill that had nothing to do with the Constitution and everything to do with weakening criminal background checks. This new law, also known as “criminal carry,” does away with the only safety check that remained in Georgia law, a requirement that a person who wanted to carry a weapon in public had to go through a permitting process that would ensure that the person was not a criminal or mentally ill.
The impact of the new law is that it makes it easier for felons and other criminals to carry guns openly. And it does nothing to make our communities safer. Under the new law, a person can walk around in public with an assault-like rifle and could not be questioned by law enforcement, and it is perfectly legal up until the moment the person points the gun and opens fire.
“Criminal carry” had been pushed by fringe members of the GOP for years, but it was privately derided by Republican legislators as extreme and nutty. Yet it passed this year. Why? Because when the gun lobby says “jump,” Georgia Republicans now reply, “how high?”
The reason is obvious: money. One of the military-style rifles that the Uvalde killer used is manufactured by a company called Daniel Defense, a deep-pocketed Republican donor in Georgia. This year alone, the company’s owners have donated more than $70,000 directly to GOP candidates for federal office, including Herschel Walker. The company has donated the same amount — over $70,000 — this cycle to candidates at the state level including Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr. Just two days after Gov. Kemp signed “criminal carry” into law with AG Carr by his side, Daniel Defense rewarded Carr with the maximum permitted campaign contribution, and its CEO gave Kemp’s leadership PAC an additional $25,000 just weeks later. Don’t tell me that this isn’t about politics or power.
This giving is intended to influence those in power to pass laws or push policies that create the largest possible marketplace of gun buyers and that shield gun manufacturers like themselves from any liability. This has been a successful strategy here in Georgia. Unfortunately, this type of transactional “pay to play” is legal. But just because something is legal doesn’t mean that it’s right.
To be clear, businesses aren’t elected to protect and serve the people. That is not their role. It is, however, the role of those at the highest levels of state government – our governor and our attorney general – who are tasked with enforcing our laws. The safety of our children, our communities and members of law enforcement must come first. And certainly must come before any special interest whose first priority is profits. It really is about priorities. And those who don’t prioritize our children and our safety should be voted out. It is that simple.
Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, is a Georgia State Senator and candidate for Georgia Attorney General.
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