Let me tell you about the life of a child in Atlanta on Thursday after a series of school shooting threats were made against Atlanta Public Schools and private schools too.
Just a week after the Apalachee school shooting in Winder, authorities and schools took the threats seriously. So children from kindergarten to 12th grade saw extra police officers on campus when they were dropped off in the morning. Some saw FBI agents at recess like the ones they’d seen in movies. Others had their outdoor PE classes canceled, which they understood was to keep them from being killed if a shooter saw them.
If these children were like mine, they got into their carpools at pickup time and told their moms, “I’m scared.”
It’s a terrible world we’re asking them to grow up in. But it should come as no surprise to Gov. Brian Kemp and members of the Georgia General Assembly because they are the ones who passed the laws that made it this way.
Along with passing a series of laws to loosen gun restrictions in Georgia over the last several years, lawmakers have also passed school safety packages that envisioned a day exactly like Thursday. They appropriated money for more police, more alarms, more locks and more active shooter drills. But they refused to address how to keep a school shooter from getting a gun in the first place.
A glimmer of progress came this week when House Speaker Jon Burns sent a letter to his Republican colleagues outlining what he’ll ask them to do when the Legislature meets in January to prevent another school shooting.
Burns, a Republican, wants lawmakers to look at tougher penalties for those who make threats against schools, more mental health treatment for children, better communication about threats between jurisdictions and a narrow proposal to give tax incentives to get people to buy gun safes or other gun storage devices. Burns added, “This is not an exhaustive list.”
And that’s the sentence to pay attention to because Burns has become the first Republican and only leader in the last decade to signal he’s willing to push something small on gun safety — the tax credit — and consider something more.
It’s not enough. But it’s something.
And Burns should get credit for at least opening the door into an area that other Republican leaders have refused to go. That his wife is a former classroom teacher and principal in South Georgia must have factored into his thinking.
Another factor is undoubtedly the election in November, when several House Republicans from suburban Atlanta districts are up for reelection. Those lawmakers are being inundated with calls from worried parents and teachers, begging them to do something to limit access to guns, especially for people who have no business using one.
One of those Republicans is state Rep. Scott Hilton in Peachtree Corners, who told me Thursday that he supports everything Burns proposed but thinks that lawmakers can and should do more, especially on guns.
“I am a dad of three school-aged kids,” he said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”
Hilton sponsored the tax credit bill last session, which passed the state House but died in the Senate. “We need more folks with the courage to step out and say, ‘I’m willing to do something about this,’” he said.
Republican state Rep. Deborah Silcox from Sandy Springs is another Republican facing a challenge in a swing district. On Thursday, she posted a video on social media promising to try to reduce gun violence. “We have a responsibility to keep our kids safe, and I believe our kids deserve better,” she wrote.
“Better” should start with the list from Burns — and then add a minimum age to possess an AR-15 style weapon in Georgia. As it stands now, there is nothing illegal about a father giving his 14-year-old son an AR-15 style weapon.
In fact, he could have given it to an 8-year-old, since the only age limit in Georgia applies to the purchase of a long gun, including an AR-15 style weapon, not to have it and use it. This state has minimum ages for kids to drive a car, hold a job, and drink a beer. In what world should there not also be a minimum age to possess an AR-15 style weapon?
Georgia leaders should also follow the lead of then-Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Republicans and pass meaningful red flag legislation, which would give a judge the authority to temporarily keep guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Republicans in that state passed their law after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland High School.
Georgia Republicans have balked at that kind of law in the past, but they should consider the fact that Republicans in Florida paid no political price for that law. In fact, they were rewarded for it and hold a supermajority in the state now.
Finally, they should repeal the 2012 law that requires local governments to auction off weapons confiscated in a criminal investigation. As it stands now, Barrow County will be required by Georgia law to sell the AR-15 style weapon that was used to kill two students and two teachers. When they do sell it, the weapon could go to a father planning to give it to his 12-year-old son, even if one or both of them are mentally ill.
That’s the lunacy of Georgia’s gun laws today.
Speaker Burns’ letter to his colleagues is a signal that he, at least, is ready to do something. But he and House Republicans can’t do it without Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones acting too.
On Thursday, the governor said it is too soon to talk about policies to address the Apalachee shooting. But it’s not at all too soon to take the obvious, rational steps that would make Georgia children safer from gun violence, especially in the schools where they deserve to feel safe.
It may be hard for them to believe, but Republicans will eventually lose power in this state over this issue. They won’t lose all of their seats, but they will lose in the suburbs. They will lose on the margins. And eventually, they’ll have a governor willing to pass limited gun laws that make sense for the majority of the people in Georgia, especially children.
Parents are begging Republican leaders to act. If they won’t, they’ll find a Democrat who will.
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