by Dave Williams | Sep 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a joint statement Friday afternoon declaring non-credible threats that have been spreading on social media since Wednesday’s school shooting in Barrow County.
Threats of violence naming various schools have been circulating since two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School near Winder were shot and killed Wednesday morning. A 14-year-old student was arrested at the scene and has been been charged with felony murder.
In addition, suspect Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray, has been charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children for allegedly allowing his son to have the AR-15 rifle used in the shooting spree.
Some parents who attended a news conference Georgia House Democrats held Friday morning to call for passage of gun safety legislation said they decided to keep their children home from school after receiving emails from school administrators citing online threats that named their schools.
Later Friday, the FBI and GBI reported law enforcement agencies are responding to an increase in reported school threats following Wednesday’s shooting.
“School safety hotlines and law enforcement often see increased reporting following a mass shooting incident, as students and the public are more apt to respond to suspicious activity or concerns,” the joint statement read. “Reposting these threats can cause undue panic and spread false information.
“To date, the majority of investigations into threats posed online since the Apalachee High School shooting have been deemed non-credible.”
The two agencies went on to remind the public that law enforcement will investigate and prosecute anyone found making specific threats on social media.
They also asked Georgians who see or hear a threat to report it to local law enforcement immediately but not to share or forward the threat until authorities have had a chance to investigate.
by Dave Williams | Sep 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgians do not have the authority to demand that the governor convene an administrative hearing to take up accusations against members of state boards, Attorney General Chris Carr wrote in a legal opinion issued Friday.
Gov. Brian Kemp asked for the legal opinion late last month after Georgia Democrats called on the Republican governor to remove three GOP members of the State Election Board for approving changes to state election laws they said could disrupt the November elections.
The five-member board adopted a series of controversial rules changes last month that, among other things, would empower local election officials to delay or refuse to certify election results. Democrats say that could sow chaos and uncertainty following the Nov. 5 elections and let former President Donald Trump capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes, even if Vice President Kamala Harris has won more of the state’s popular vote..
Kemp asked Carr for his opinion on whether the phrase “upon charges being filed” in state law means a citizen can present information about a state board member that might constitute formal charges.
“It is my official opinion that … the phrase … does not mean that a citizen can simply submit information to the governor and trigger the hearing process contemplated,” Carr wrote.
Former Fulton County Election Board Chair Cathy Woolard, a Democrat, filed a formal ethics complaint last month against State Election Board members Janice Johnston, Janelle King, and Rick Jeffares – the three who voted for the rules changes – and called on Kemp to refer the complaint to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Specifically, Woolard accused the board of violating the state’s Open Meetings Act by meeting in July without the legally required public notice or a quorum. Board members responded by rescinding two rules changes they had made during that meeting and approving them on a second vote in early August.
Max Flugrath, communications director for Fair Fight, a voting rights organization founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, criticized Carr’s opinion Friday.
“The AG’s opinion leaves a gaping hole where accountability should lie,” Flugrath said. “If the grave, substantive, detailed, and ‘formal’ complaint filed by a former election official is not enough to trigger Gov. Kemp’s legal duty to hold a hearing on the pro-Trump Election Board members’ alleged illegal and unethical actions, the only reasonable conclusion is that the General Assembly wrote a worthless law.”
by Dave Williams | Sep 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The environmental advocacy group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper filed a federal lawsuit Friday charging the city of Atlanta with polluting the river.
The suit follows a letter Chattahoochee Riverkeeper sent in July notifying city officials that they would
have 60 days to stop discharging illegal levels of pollution from the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center or face legal action.
R.M. Clayton is Atlanta’s largest wastewater treatment facility, receiving millions of gallons of the city’s wastewater every day. The facility has been illegally discharging pollutants – including chemicals and harmful levels of bacteria – into the river in violation of both its wastewater discharge permit and the federal Clean Water Act, the suit alleges.
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper notified the city and the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD) last March that R.M. Clayton was discharging large amounts of E. coli and other pollutants into the river, threatening public health, wildlife, and the river’s ecosystem.
City officials initially attributed the facility’s failure to both heavy rainfall and multiple discharges of illicit substances. However, an inspection by the EPD revealed a state of disrepair at the facility, with problems at all stages of wastewater treatment as well as numerous safety hazards.
“The city of Atlanta knows that the R.M. Clayton facility is failing and poses a serious threat to
the health of the Chattahoochee River and all the people and wildlife who depend on it,” said
Jason Ulseth, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s executive director. “Yet the city has allowed operational
and maintenance failures at the facility to compound over time, failing to follow through on
even the most basic equipment repairs.”
“For months, the city has failed to alleviate very real public health and environmental concerns
at the R.M. Clayton facility,” added Hutton Brown, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in the lawsuit. “Because Atlanta’s leadership did not step up and show they’re serious about fixing this problem, we had no choice but to step in and ask the court to hold them accountable.”
The suit seeks an injunction to prohibit ongoing violations of the city’s wastewater permit, as well as civil penalties, attorney’s fees and costs.
by Dave Williams | Sep 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia House Democrats urged Gov. Brian Kemp Friday to call a special session of the General Assembly to take up gun safety legislation following Wednesday’s school shooting in Barrow County that left four dead and injured nine others.
Democratic lawmakers introduced a series of bills during the 2023-24 legislative term either encouraging or requiring Georgians to lock their firearms and store them in a secure location, but none made any headway.
“Not one bill had a hearing. Not one had a chance to make it through to the governor’s desk,” House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“These bills would address the health-care crisis of the gun epidemic. … But we can’t even begin to have these conversations.”
A 14-year-old student was arrested at Apalachee High School near Winder Wednesday after a shooting spree that killed two teachers and two students. Colt Gray, who allegedly used an AR-15 rifle with a collapsible stock, was arraigned Friday on four counts of felony murder.
The suspect’s father, Colin Gray, also faces charges of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children for allowing his son to possess the weapon, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said.
The House did pass one gun safety measure during this year’s legislative session, a Republican-backed measure offering tax credits to Georgians who buy firearm storage devices such as trigger locks or gun safes.
After passing the House 162-3 in late February, House Bill 971 cleared the Senate Finance Committee. But it failed to reach the Senate floor for a vote.
House Democrats said failing to pass any of the safe firearm storage bills before the General Assembly during the last two years was a missed opportunity on the part of majority Republicans that could have prevented Wednesday’s tragedy.
“We had the policy tools to prevent this from happening,” said Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta. “Inaction will mean more shootings, more devastation, more deaths. … Every day that goes by is a day we’re telling the people of Georgia we’re beholden to the gun lobby.”
Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for Kemp, said the governor does not believe this is the proper time for a special session.
“As the governor has said before, now is the time for investigation and to mourn those we’ve lost, not politics, and the governor is ensuring that law enforcement and the Wildcat community continue to have the resources they need for as long as they need it,” Douglas said.
Kemp has included school safety measures in the state budget. This year’s budget set aside about $109 million for school districts to use in safety efforts.
The governor signed the Safe Schools Act last year, which requires schools to conduct “intruder alert drills” and submit school safety plans to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
Emotion boiled over during Friday’s news conference, with a couple of parents in the audience saying they’re afraid to send their children to school, citing emails from school administrators warning of threats of further violence.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, said the 78 House Democrats need the support of just 13 Republican lawmakers to pass gun safety legislation.
The partisan crowd assembled on the Capitol steps behind the speakers erupted in a chant of “Vote Them Out!” aimed at Republican House members running for reelection in November.
by Dave Williams | Sep 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers should use Wednesday’s school shooting in Barrow County as a catalyst to make it harder for children to gain access to firearms, the chairman of a state Senate study committee said Thursday.
“We have an opportunity in Georgia,” said Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, chairman of the Senate Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee. “Now is the time for us to take advantage of this opportunity and seize the moment.”
Two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School were shot to death Wednesday and nine others were injured. Authorities identified the victims as assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, math teacher Christina Irimie, and students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn.
A 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, was arrested and charged with murder. He is accused of using an AR-15 rifle with a collapsible stock.
The latest in an epidemic of school shootings that have shaken the nation in recent years has drawn national attention to Georgia’s lax gun laws.
In a state that allows adult gun owners to carry their weapons openly without a permit and imposes no safe storage requirements to keep guns out of the hands of minors, more than 300 children have been treated in a Georgia emergency room for a firearm wound so far this year, according to the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Georgia House Democrats introduced several bills aimed at safe storage last year, including a proposed tax credit for expenses incurred buying firearm storage devices such as trigger locks and safes. But none made any headway in the Republican-controlled House.
This year, a Republican-backed tax credit measure did clear the House but was tabled in the Senate.
On the Senate side, a resolution passed this year created a study committee to determine if changes to state laws relating to firearms storage and access to guns by children are needed. Thursday’s meeting was the second of four the panel plans to hold later this year.
Thursday’s discussion renewed a longstanding debate over whether stricter gun laws or improving mental health services are the better approach to reducing gun violence.
Heather Hallett, who organized the group Georgia Majority for Gun Safety, said a child access prevention law requiring gun owners to keep their weapons locked and stored in a secure location would significantly reduce not only homicides but suicides and accidental shootings.
“We’re in a state of gun owners,” Hallett said. “[But] there are common-sense solutions and regulations that can save lives while protecting our Second Amendment rights.”
Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, a member of the study committee, said reducing gun violence committed by young people is going to require identifying and counseling those with mental health issues who might perpetrate such acts.
“Firearms are not the enemy,” said Ginn, who represents the Senate district where Wednesday’s school shooting occurred. “The enemy is the mentally deranged.”
Jordan Murphy, executive director of Girassol Wellness, which works with children who survived firearm injuries and families who have lost young people to gun violence, said both approaches are necessary. Her group is recommending both a safe storage law for firearms and expanding resources for mental health counseling.
“We have to hold people accountable,” Murphy said. “If you want to have a gun, be responsible about it.”
