After September's deadly school shooting in Georgia, a call goes out for greater gun control

ATLANTA (AP) — A day after Georgia Republican House Speaker Jon Burns unveiled school safety legislation, Democrats and families from Apalachee High School said they want more — namely, gun safety laws.

Both efforts to curb the gun violence come months after a mass shooting at Apalachee, the school northeast of Atlanta where a 14-year-old boy stands accused of killing two teachers and two students and wounding several others last Sept. 4.

The morning of the shooting, senior Isabel Trejo was fretting about an upcoming test while in math class with teacher Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall. He died later that day, one of the four fatal victims. When the shooting started, Trejo told lawmakers at the Capitol on Tuesday, “the minutes that followed felt like an eternity.”

“I huddled under a desk mentally preparing myself for the shooter to come into my classroom and start firing,” Trejo said.

Trejo joined with Apalachee families and Ishmael “Junior” Angulo, whose brother Christian Angulo died in the shooting, to support Johns Creek Democratic Rep. Michelle Au and others who are calling for greater gun regulation in a state with some of the nation's most permissive gun laws.

They praised Burns' efforts but said the state needs gun safety laws to prevent another tragic shooting.

“Speaker Burns’ plan focuses on what happens when a firearm is already in a school. Dr. Au’s bill ensures that firearms are secure so they don’t get there in the first place,” said Layla Renee Contreras, a former Apalachee student with Change for Chee, a community group created after the shooting to advocate for school safety.

According to research from Johns Hopkins, Georgia had the eighth-highest gun homicide rate in 2022 and firearms were the leading cause of death for young people ages 1-17.

Democrats have pushed for gun control with little success. Republicans, who control the state House and Senate, have resisted most of those efforts. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's loud support for gun rights helped him win his election and brought him national attention. In 2022, he signed a law allowing people to carry a handgun without a state-issued permit.

All of this went on before the shooting at Apalachee, though. Some Democrats hope the tragedy will spur enough Republicans to heed their call for action.

“The families of Apalachee and Barrow County have not moved on, and we owe it to them to give this issue the attention and the work it deserves, even in an environment where the challenges to progress seem daunting,” Au said.

Au proposed tax credits up to $300 for purchasing safe storage devices, such as gun safes and trigger locks. Burns says he supports tax incentives. A bipartisan group of lawmakers passed those credits in the House last year and the Senate passed a similar bill, but neither made it through the other chamber.

Au also proposed processes for background checks, which are unlikely to gain Republican support.

Another bill she introduced would make it a crime to allow a child access to a gun, including failing to safely secure it or leaving it out somewhere — a proposal also made by Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat. It also requires businesses to put up signs about those regulations. That bill has one Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Sharon Cooper of Marietta. The 14-year-old arrested in the Apalachee shooting, Colt Gray, allegedly got the semiautomatic assault rifle used in the attack from his father. Father and son are both facing murder charges.

Parent also has proposed barring anyone convicted of family violence from having guns. She also introduced a bill that would require a hearing process if someone who had been involuntarily hospitalized wants to get their records wiped. Right now, Georgia's crime information center wipes that information five years after hospitalization.

Decatur Democrat Sen. Emanuel Jones introduced a bill to create an emergency alert system and database for threats. Schools would have to provide mental health services for students who make threats. He also proposed a statewide program to share information about gun safety.

On Monday, the father of the slain teacher Aspinwall’ stood behind Burns at the capitol to support his proposals. The plan calls for greater information sharing by schools and police about reported threats as well as students with disciplinary or mental health records at risk of committing violence. The proposal also calls for new ways to connect students with counseling.

The governor last month proposed giving public schools an additional $50 million for school safety, but it did not include money for school counselors and mental health counseling that officials have requested.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.