ATLANTA (AP) — The speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives says lawmakers will consider novel policies in 2025 to promote student mental health, recognize guns and encourage people to store guns safely after a shooting at a high school northeast of Atlanta left four people dead.
But Republican Jon Burns of Newington falls compact of Democratic demands for universal background checks, a requirement to securely lock up guns and a “red flag” law that would allow the state to temporarily confiscate guns from people in a crisis situation.
The proposals put forward by Burns on Thursday are the first policy response to the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.
The Republican leader is making the move to protect his party’s 102-78 majority in the state House of Representatives in November’s elections. Disputes over gun policy could affect a handful of contested seats in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, including three held by Republican incumbents.
“While Republicans in the House have already made significant investments to increase safety in our schools, improve access to mental health care, and keep our students safe, I am committed to not only continuing that work but to taking additional actions that will help ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again in our state,” Burns wrote.
It is unclear what reaction other leading Republicans, such as Governor Brian Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, expect. Kemp described the shooting as “our worst nightmare” just hours after the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall (39) and Cristina Irimie (53) and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo (both 14). Nine other people were injured – seven of them were shot.
Democrats sharply attacked Republicans, arguing that the shooting was a result of Republicans loosening gun laws in Georgia.
“What makes this even more devastating than it already is is knowing that we had the political tools to prevent this tragedy in the first place,” Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta said Friday as she and her Democratic colleagues called for a special session of the House to address gun violence. “And we didn’t use them because my Republican colleagues would rather gamble with the lives of our children than face the wrath of the gun lobby.”
Investigators believe 14-year-old Colt Gray committed the shooting. As an adult, he is charged with four counts of murder. His 54-year-old father, Colin Gray, has been charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse. Investigators say Colin Gray gave his son access to an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle despite knowing the teenager was a danger to himself and others.
Burns said he would consider sharing information between police, schools and mental health facilities, a reference to the fact that Colt and Colin Gray were questioned by a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy in 2023 about an online post threatening a school shooting. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said her office did not find enough evidence to press charges. It is unclear whether Colt Gray’s previous schools were informed of the threats.
“We understand that the shooter’s history came to light when he transferred to Apalachee High School due to a communication problem between the school system and law enforcement,” Burns wrote.
The spokesperson also said he wants to expand mental health services for students. The state’s voluntary Apex program directs students to counseling. The program covered 540,000 of Georgia’s 1.75 million students in 2022-2023, about 31%.
Burns also wants to explore ways to detect guns before they get into schools. Some schools exploit camera systems and artificial intelligence to detect guns instead of metal detectors.
The spokesman is proposing tougher penalties for threats against schools and says he wants to address copycat threats that have been around since the shooting. Criminal penalties are only imposed on people charged as adults, and most of the threats were arrested as minors.
In closing, Burns said Republicans in the House would once again support protected storage of firearms. The House passed a bill this year that would provide a state income tax credit of up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes, trigger locks, other security devices or the cost of firearms safety courses. The Senate favored a bill that would exempt gun safes and other security devices from state sales tax. Both bills failed after the chambers could not reach agreement.
Democrats had little success with a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor to negligently fail to secure firearms that children have access to. Rep. Michelle Au, a Democrat from Johns Creek, has promised to reintroduce the measure.
The speaker said he was open to other suggestions and said the House would “consider every reasonable idea and solution to protect and defend the most vulnerable among us – our children – while preserving the right and privilege of our citizens to protect their families and property.”
Burns argued that previous school security efforts had reduced the number of casualties in Apalachee by helping to fund portable panic buttons that would have alerted authorities and school security, who would have responded.
Previously, state lawmakers and Kemp approved several rounds of one-time security grants totaling $184 million.
The budget, which took effect July 1, provides more than $100 million in ongoing funding, enough to provide each public school with $47,000 annually for security. Schools can exploit the money for select security purposes, although Kemp has said he wants to exploit it to fund a security officer for each school.
