Georgians- Get ready for the next mass school shooting

You are praying, Governor. Good for you. It will not increase the number of shootings and it may get you a few votes, which is why you said it.

However, you must be aware that our most religious states are also some of our most violent, with the most gun deaths per capita. If prayers really helped, we would not have so many gun deaths in those states.

In the meantime, earlier this year an Evans Middle School child made terroristic threats to shoot kids at this school (https://times-herald.com/news/2023/01/evans-student-removed-after-alleged-threat). I suppose Kemp wants us to pray... and arm elementary school teachers (good guy with a gun, see below)?

Through his obvious inaction and useless rhetoric, Governor Kemp is set on ensuring that Georgia will have more unnecessary firearm violence. This is not my opinion. Based on firearm killings per capita by state, it is a fact (see below). And, since 13% of mass shootings occur in schools, prepare yourself because the next tragedy might be here in Georgia.

Governor Kemp’s position on gun control is that - “The bad guys, they’re already going to get guns. They already have them. We’re trying to make sure it’s easy for Georgians to exercise their constitutional rights to carry a weapon” (1-7-22).

He is partially correct. Due to people like Kemp who promote lax gun laws, the bad guys do have firearms. Nearly two-thirds of mass shooting perpetrators had criminal records and were already known to be violent (https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&stream=top#note1).

But our nation does not need to simply accept it or increase the number of people having AR-15s, the NRA/Kemp solution. From 1969 to 2020, the number of guns in America went from 90 to 400 million. The death rate per capita by firearms went up 15%. More guns equals more gun deaths. And the opposite is also true. Fewer guns mean less dead.

Let’s examine Australia, a nation with many cultural similarities to ours, but a homicide rate that is less than one fifth of ours(https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/draft_of_trends_issues_paper_mass_shootings_and_firearm_control_comparing_australia_and_the_united_states_submitted_to_peer_review.pdf).

Australia had a series of mass casualty incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. These incidents caused the central government to pass national, rather than state, laws restricting firearms. Thus, in 1996, the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) was passed. It detailed exactly who could own firearms and exactly why, registered them, set standards for securing them, and prohibited ownership of semi-automatic and automatic weapons. Gradually, each state passed these acts. And there were 720,000 “buy backs” from existing gun owners. In 2002, the National Handgun Control Agreement was passed which further restricted handguns, especially importation and availability. And it set up a “red flag” system protecting whistleblowers from criminal and civil penalties if they identified dangerous people attempting to buy, obtain or use a firearm. And the rate of firearm deaths dropped dramatically.

We could do the same here in the USA. The Second Amendment does not stand in the way. Until Justice Scalia redefined the Second Amendment for political purposes, it pertained only to state militias having weapons, not individuals. The Supreme Court barely went along, 5-4. That can be reversed by court expansion.

If Kemp really wanted fewer deaths by guns, he would be advocating similar gun control measures in Georgia. Instead, he wants even more guns...and unnecessary deaths. Remember this fact the next time you vote.