Advocates for gun violence prevention testified Thursday, at times through tears, before the Georgia Senate’s Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee about the fear and discomfort they felt after a shooting the day before at Apalachee High School in Winder left two students and two adults dead.
“I had a lot of things prepared to say, but I’m just going to sit up here and cry, apparently,” said Sarah Walker, a member of the group Georgia Moms for Change, which advocates for safe gun storage and other measures.
“Georgia, we know, has some of the most lax gun laws, and we are having mass shootings. Our children are traumatized. Communities are torn apart,” she said.
The committee, chaired by Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones, is mostly a forum for experts, including doctors and victims of gun violence, to present data and information to lawmakers, and may produce recommendations.
Legislation is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled General Assembly, but after the shooting some Republicans in Georgia signaled they’d be open to changing the state’s gun laws.
Jones said he believed it was important to keep the meeting as scheduled and hear from people across the state who have been impacted by gun violence.
“We have an opportunity in Georgia. I think now is the moment for us to take advantage of this opportunity and seize this moment,” said Jones, who said he owns guns.
Advocates pushed the panel to consider a law that would punish adults if children gained access to their firearms.
“We can save children’s lives, and nothing that I have heard about the drawbacks or inconveniences of locking up your firearms should trump those children’s lives. That’s just a full stop,” said Heather Hallett, a member of Georgia Majority for Gun Safety, a bipartisan coalition to reduce gun violence.
Studies have found that child-access prevention laws resulted in significant reductions of unintentional firearm injuries or deaths among youths, but more research is needed to determine whether these laws reduce mass shootings, according to findings from the Rand Corp., a Washington-based think tank.
Even on the Democratic-led committee, lawmakers were divided on the best approach to preventing school shootings and other mass casualty events in Georgia.
“Praying is good, but praying is not going to get us where we need to be,” said Democratic state Sen. David Lucas, who represents parts of Middle Georgia.
Lucas, who said he owns dozens of guns, said more metal detectors placed in schools could prevent people from smuggling firearms inside.
But Democratic state Rep. Yasmin Neal, who represents parts of Clayton County, said those detectors may not pick up on a gun if it’s been broken into parts that someone could reassemble once inside. A U.S. Department of Justice analysis in 2021 also found that 3D-printed guns could go undetected by metal detectors.
Republican state Sen. Frank Ginn, who represents Winder and parts of Barrow County, said the suspect charged in Wednesday’s shooting must have something “twisted in his mind” and solutions to gun violence should focus on mental health support
“Firearms are not the enemy. The enemy is the mentally deranged, and that’s where I want to try to make sure that we do all we can to get those people help that need it, long before they pull a gun,” he said.
However, research has shown that most people who have mental illness do not commit violent crimes against others. According to a widely cited 1990 report from the National Institute of Mental Health, people with mental illness committed only 4% of violent crimes.
It’s more common that people with serious mental illness direct gun violence toward themselves through suicide attempts: Suicide accounted for 61% of gun-related deaths in 2010, according to the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Georgia also does not have a so-called “red flag” law, which allows officials to remove guns from an individual’s possession if a judge has ruled that someone possesses a serious risk of injuring themselves or others.
Emotion throughout Thursday’s discussion was strong.
“As a father of kids myself, I understand your pain, and I feel the gravity of this moment in trying to come up with an approach,” Jones said.
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