The Apalachee High School shooting in Winder, Georgia, was the deadliest school shooting in the state of Georgia. With four dead, four injured, it met anyone’s definition of a mass murder and raised a lot of questions, particularly about the alleged shooter’s dad’s parenting skills.
But while many states would latch onto gun control almost immediately after something like that, Georgia isn’t one of those states. As someone who lives here, I’m relieved, to say the least.
A lot of people here wanted it. Don’t misunderstand me there, but it wasn’t going to happen.
So, it seems the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found a group of parents who are interested in actual solutions instead.
A group of parents sat at a Starbucks in Barrow County and had another debate about guns.
“I don’t believe in almost any gun laws,” said parent William Philp, who moved to Georgia from Massachusetts with his kids largely because of the lax gun restrictions here.
“If they had stricter gun laws though … then you probably wouldn’t have to protect yourselves,” argued Tinya Brown.
They were seated 2.5 miles from the site of the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history, where their kids go to school. They’re part of a group called Change for Chee — parents and community members that came together to advocate for school safety measures after the September shooting at Apalachee High, where two students and two teachers were killed. A group of about 10 has been meeting like this for months, trying to figure out the best way to do some good.
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Collectively, they’ve asked for enhanced physical security and mental health supports. They were eager to see state lawmakers pass a bill that would set up a way for school systems to share information about threats. And as the school year comes to a close, the group is taking stock of what seven months of pushing for change can get you in 2025. Weapons detectors in schools. Required identification for students. New state laws about school safety.
So it’s not that they’re universally opposed to gun control–Brown, for example, seems to favor them and has bought the inane arguments that somehow they disarm bad guys, for example–but it seems this group is looking for some actual common ground, and that exists in measures outside of gun control.
That’s good.
I’m not sure that some of these measures will actually accomplish all that much, since requiring IDs for students doesn’t stop a maniac from walking into the school with a firearm like what we saw in Uvalde, but they also revolve around trying to harden the schools. That’s a drum I’ve been beating for years now.
Now, couple school hardening with armed teachers and what you get is a situation where any would-be school shooter is going to have nothing but problems.
We know, for example, that the Nashville killer didn’t initially target the Covenant School. Her first target had security that was too good for her murderous plan, so she shifted.
If every school is like that, then the threat to our children effectively ends.
The fact that this group of parents are trying to find actual solutions that could be implemented in a state like Georgia is a good thing. If only those who still favor gun control would wake up, then it would be even better.
Read the full article here
