Current:Home > ContactGeorgia school shooting stirs debate about safe storage laws for guns -GrowthInsight
Georgia school shooting stirs debate about safe storage laws for guns
View
Date:2025-04-13 18:36:39
Just a couple of weeks ago, a special panel of Georgia state senators convened to study potential laws aimed at keeping firearms safely locked up and out of the hands of children.
A day after a 14-year-old was charged in a deadly shooting at his Georgia high school, that same panel gathered again Thursday to discuss safe gun storage policies. The lawmakers are still talking about the issue because — like many state legislatures across the U.S. — they have been unable to agree in recent years on whether new gun safety measures provide a solution to the all-too-frequent occurrence of mass shootings at schools and public places.
The Georgia school shooting marked the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings.
Under federal law, no one younger than 18 can legally purchase a rifle or other long gun from a licensed firearm dealer. Yet authorities say Colt Gray used a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School near Winder, just outside of Atlanta. Nine others were injured.
His father, Colin Gray, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with his son’s actions and for “allowing him to possess a weapon,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are wrestling with what to do.
“While we sit here and mourn the families and the kids, what are we doing about it?” state Sen. David Lucas, a Democratic member of the study committee, rhetorically asked. “Are we talking? Or are we doing something to try to make sure that legislation is passed in order to give us some kind of relief when it comes to guns?”
Republican state Sen. Frank Ginn, a panel member whose district includes Apalachee High School, said he agreed that “we need to take some action on things.” But Ginn said the focus should on be on mental health.
“Firearms are not the enemy,” Ginn said. “The enemy is the mentally deranged.”
Firearm storage
A recent report by the RAND Gun Policy in America Initiative found supportive evidence that safe gun-storage laws reduce firearm injuries and deaths among youth.
A total of 26 states — including Democratic-led California and New York and Republican-led Florida and Texas — have laws requiring gun owners to lock up firearms or penalizing them if a child gains access to an unsecured gun, according Everytown for Gun Safety, a national advocacy group that works to fight gun violence. Georgia is not among them.
But Georgia lawmakers have considered a variety of firearms storage proposals.
In February, Georgia’s Senate passed legislation that sought to promote safe firearm storage by exempting gun safes and other firearm safety devices from state sales tax. A couple weeks later, the House passed legislation to create a state income tax credit of up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes, trigger locks, other firearms security devices or the costs of instructional courses on safe firearms handling.
But neither chamber signed off on the other’s approach.
Republican state Rep. Mark Newton, a lead sponsor of the proposed income tax credit, said Thursday that he hopes senators will take a close look at the plan during the 2025 legislative session.
The Senate Safe Firearms Storage Study Committee is considering proposals for next year.
This year’s rival bills both “had strong support and demonstrated the desire to incentivize gun safety,” Republican state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, the sponsor of the Senate version, said Thursday. “I am certain that we will be continuing the conversation next session.”
Meanwhile, Democrats gained little traction on legislation that would have created a misdemeanor crime for negligently failing to secure firearms accessed by children.
However, in a test case that’s being challenged in court, the Democratic-led city of Savannah enacted an ordinance that imposes fines and possibly jail time for people who leave guns inside unlocked cars.
School safety
State lawmakers and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp have approved multiple rounds of school security grants in recent years, totaling $184 million.
The state budget that began July 1 includes more than $100 million in ongoing funding, enough to provide $47,000 a year to each public school to address safety needs. Schools can use that for whatever security purpose they believe is most pressing, though Kemp has said previously that he wants it to help underwrite a security officer for each school.
Kemp called the shooting “our worst nightmare.” But he declined to discuss what state government could have done differently.
“Look, we’ve done a tremendous amount on school safety,” Kemp told reporters outside Apalachee High School on Wednesday night.
Apalachee High School had recently equipped teachers and staff with wearable panic alert buttons as part of its safety efforts. A school employee used the alert during Wednesday’s shooting, automatically summoning authorities to the scene. The school safety company Centegix said its CrisisAlert system is used at about 12,000 sites nationwide, primarily in K-12 schools.
After numerous high-profile shootings, school security has become a multibillion-dollar industry in the U.S., with some companies lobbying policymakers to write their particular corporate solutions into state law.
Legislatures in some states, including Iowa, Nebraska and Tennessee, passed laws this year expanding the potential for armed personnel in schools. It’s been legal for Georgia school districts to let employees carry guns for years, but very few of the state’s 180 districts are known to have enacted such policies.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican, traveled last year to an elementary school in Winder to outline a plan to pay up to $10,000 annually to teachers who hold a firearms training certificate and carry guns in schools. But the proposal went nowhere in the Legislature.
Red flag laws
The teenager charged in the Georgia shooting had previously been interviewed by a sheriff’s investigator following a tip from the FBI that the boy, then 13, “had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school.” The threat was made on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to a Jackson County sheriff’s report obtained by the AP. The boy denied making the threat and an investigator wrote that no arrests were made because of “inconsistent information” on the Discord account.
In some states, concerns about the potential for someone to cause harm with a gun can provide grounds for authorities to temporarily remove firearms from a home. Twenty-one states have extreme risk protection laws, sometimes referred to as red-flag laws. Georgia is not among them.
Resistance to such laws has grown in Republican-led legislatures. After a deadly shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pushed for a statewide measure that would allow some version of extreme risk protection orders. But the GOP-led Legislature declined to pass it.
An AP analysis found many U.S. states barely use their red flag laws, a trend blamed on a lack of awareness of the laws and resistance by some authorities to enforce them.
___
Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed from Atlanta.
veryGood! (7338)
Related
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Rupert Murdoch says Fox stars 'endorsed' lies about 2020. He chose not to stop them
- Janet Yellen visits Ukraine and pledges even more U.S. economic aid
- Dutch Court Gives Shell Nine Years to Cut Its Carbon Emissions by 45 Percent from 2019 Levels
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Hybrid cars are still incredibly popular, but are they good for the environment?
- Thousands Came to Minnesota to Protest New Construction on the Line 3 Pipeline. Hundreds Left in Handcuffs but More Vowed to Fight on.
- 25,000+ Amazon Shoppers Say This 15-Piece Knife Set Is “The Best”— Save 63% On It Ahead of Prime Day
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- FDA approves new drug to protect babies from RSV
Ranking
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- Full transcript of Face the Nation, July 16, 2023
- Is the Controlled Shrinking of Economies a Better Bet to Slow Climate Change Than Unproven Technologies?
- Vine Star Tristan Simmonds Shares He’s Starting Testosterone After Coming Out as Transgender
- 2025 'Doomsday Clock': This is how close we are to self
- Adam Sandler’s Sweet Anniversary Tribute to Wife Jackie Proves 20 Years Is Better Than 50 First Dates
- Global Warming Cauldron Boils Over in the Northwest in One of the Most Intense Heat Waves on Record Worldwide
- The Enigmatic ‘Climate Chancellor’ Pulls Off a Grand Finale
Recommendation
John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
Theme Park Packing Guide: 24 Essential Items You’ll Want to Bring to the Parks This Summer
Reimagining Coastal Cities as Sponges to Help Protect Them From the Ravages of Climate Change
Here's why Arizona says it can keep growing despite historic megadrought
Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
One officer shot dead, 2 more critically injured in Fargo; suspect also killed
In a Stark Letter, and In Person, Researchers Urge World Leaders at COP26 to Finally Act on Science
Houston’s Mayor Asks EPA to Probe Contaminants at Rail Site Associated With Nearby Cancer Clusters