ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia Senate Committee announced Tuesday it is proposing new legislation surrounding gun storage and school safety as part of an effort to reduce gun violence across the state.
The bipartisan committee was created to examine secure firearm storage as a way of decreasing gun violence and accidental deaths among children in March 2024, just six months before a 14-year old used an AR-15 rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School.
One of the bills proposed by Democratic Senator Elena Parent would require firearms to be locked up around children, with a misdemeanor penalty if one knows or should have known that their gun could be accessed by a minor. It is currently only illegal to “recklessly provide” a firearm to a minor.
“When its extremely easy to get guns, there’s going to be lots of guns around in the community and on the street, and you will have more shootings and more deaths. And we have to talk about that. I think Georgians know that we have to be honest about gun violence and all of what we need to do,” said Parent.
She mentioned that Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, with the state ranked 46th nationally by Everytown for Gun Safety. Georgia also has a gun violence rate much higher than the national average.
More than 300 children were treated in Georgia’s emergency rooms for a firearm wound last year, according to the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Georgia’s law currently allows adult gun owners to carry their weapons openly without a permit and imposes no safe storage requirements.
Parent said the proposed legislation would help send a message that guns should be locked away and out of reach from children.
“Our laws represent our values and the ways you want people to behave. If its not illegal, why would you expect people to not do it?” said Parent.
The senator said she is also pushing a bill to close the state’s domestic violence “loophole.” While federal law already bars most people convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse from having guns, the state does not have its own prohibition law in place.
Parent mentioned that additional funding towards school safety — like the $50 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget for school safety grant as proposed by Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp — is not enough to combat the entire issue.
“You could make the school a fortress and that middle schooler who brought a gun to school and ultimately died, all the hardening in the world isn’t going to stop that, ya’ll,” said Parent, referencing an incident that occurred in early January, where a 12-year-old student suffered a self-inflicted gun shot wound at Lindley Middle School and later died.
“Most of these shootings are sadly done by people who are part of the community. And it just gets more and more glaring after each tragedy, the refusal to talk about other parts of the equation that are necessary for preventing shootings,” she added.
Another bill proposed by Democratic Senator Emmanuel Jones would create a state-wide system for public schools to identify and monitor students with “problems” across school systems.
The measure comes after the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office reportedly failed to disclose to schools that it was investigating online threats to commit a school shooting made by the Apalachee High School shooting suspect, Colt Gray.
Shortly after the investigators initially interviewed Gray and his father about the threats and his access to guns, Gray transferred to a different school district in the neighboring Barrow County.
Democratic Senator Rashaun Kemp expressed his support for the bill and cited his experience as a former high school principal.
“We all know its important to get information about our student’s academics, but what is more critically important is that we ensure that we are getting information as to issues and concerns they have with their students,” said Kemp.
Heather Hallett, the founder and director of Georgia Majority for Gun Safety, praised the proposals as a good first step in the right direction.
“The bottom line is that a majority of Georgians support common sense legislation like child access prevention laws. We know safe storage saves lives and there are bipartisan action we can take in the state to promote responsible gun owner culture,” said Hallett.
She noted that firearms were the leading cause of death among Georgia’s children and teens in 2022 and that there is a devastating rise in the number of unintentional shootings by children. According to Everytown For Gun Safety, 2023 had the highest number of incidents since the organization began tracking them in 2015.
Hallett said that additional child-access prevention laws that promote safe gun storage, universal background check purchase requirements and funding towards community violence prevention and safe storage education campaigns can decrease the amount of gun violence. She said such protections have shown to work in states where they’ve been enacted, such as in California, which she said has half the rate of gun violence as Georgia.
Other advocacy groups such as Moms Demand Action have helped push legislators to take more action.
Several members of the group including Dianna Gregory and Kelly Roarke showed up to Tuesday’s press conference at the Georgia State Capitol to express their support.
“I’m not even a mom, but I’m an aunt and a citizen and I got tired of feeling helpless every time there’s a new tragedy. If nothing else I can show up to say there’s a lot of us that care about this issue,” said Roarke.
The new Georgia legislative session kicked off two weeks ago with Republicans continuing to control both chambers.
Similar measures, such as one to provide a tax credit for certain firearm safe handling instructional courses and firearm secure storage devices, passed the Senate last year but did not make it through the House.