ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives passed legislation last year offering tax credits to Georgians who buy safe firearm storage devices such as trigger locks and gun safes, but the bill died in the state Senate.
Doing nothing is no longer an option following last September’s mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County that killed two teachers and two students. During the opening weeks of this year’s General Assembly sessions, lawmakers have introduced a series of bills aimed at improving school safety.
“Our children are our future,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said early this month during a news conference unveiling a comprehensive school safety measure. “This House is committed to leaving no stone unturned when it comes to securing their safety.”
House Bill 268 calls for improvements in information sharing among schools through a new anonymous app for tips alerting law enforcement personnel or mental health-care providers that a troubled student could pose a treat to themselves or others.
The measure also would establish a statewide information-sharing database to allow the timely transfer of pertinent student data between school systems. The 14-year-old student at Apalachee High arrested for the murders, Colt Gray, had just transferred from another school.
The bill also requires school systems to create threat management teams, provides for the mandatory suspension of students who make terroristic threats, and offers tax incentives to encourage gun owners to purchase safe gun storage equipment.
On the Senate side, majority Republicans are backing legislation requiring schools to install alert systems that could be triggered discretely to warn nearby law enforcement agencies of an active shooter. Senate Bill 17 – Ricky and Alyssa’s Law – is named in honor of Ricky Aspinwall, the coach at Apalachee High who died in the September shooting, and Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the students killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
The bill also requires schools to develop maps showing first responders the layout of school buildings, including access points.
“The big picture is to save minutes, save time, to let first responders take down an active shooter and protect the lives of children and teachers in the building,” Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Education and Youth Committee Thursday.
“Time equals life,” added Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff and founder of the nonprofit Make Our Schools Safe. “We need to get our kids and teachers to safety quicker and reduce the response time for first responders.”
The committee approved Anavitarte’s bill, and it appears headed toward passing the full Senate. Legislation backed by Senate Democrats, however, likely faces tougher sledding.
The main difference between the approach Republicans and Democrats are taking on gun safety is that Democrats want to require firearm owners to store their weapons safely, while GOP lawmakers favor offering tax incentives to encourage gun owners to voluntarily take steps to secure their firearms.
Senate Bill 49, introduced by Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, criminalizes making a firearm accessible to anyone younger than 17 without adult supervision or leaving an unsecured firearm in a place where children are likely to gain access to it.
Parent criticized Republicans for merely encouraging gun owners to store their weapons safety rather than mandating safe storage.
“If you as an adult have a gun in an unsafe location and children can gain access to it, or if you give a child a gun, the message they’re sending is, ‘Please don’t do that,’ ” she said. “The message should be stronger.”
Georgia Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, has introduced similar legislation in the House providing criminal penalties for adults who allow children access to firearms. She held a news conference on her bill recently with Apalachee High School students and their families.
“The families were appreciative of Speaker Burns and his attention to the issue of school safety but, like many, feel it does not go far enough to address the gun violence at the heart of the problem,” Au wrote in an update on the legislative session to her constituents.
Burns said he supports the Republicans’ voluntary approach to gun safety rather than a mandate to protect Georgia gun owners’ Second Amendment rights.