ATLANTA — A Georgia gun law enacted eight years ago, cited as the reason for this week’s surprise cancellation of Music Midtown, required public parks to be among the places legal gun owners were allowed to carry firearms.
Opponents of that law said it would spike gun violence, but Atlanta crime data indicates that argument is debatable.
Surrounded by a throng of gun-carrying supporters, then-Gov. Nathan Deal was in Ellijay in April 2014 to sign a bill known among supporters and critics as "guns everywhere."
The bill expanded the ability of permit holders to carry their firearms into churches, government building and public parks.
And while gun violence did go up, Atlanta police data shows that:
- From 2010 to 2014, the number of shooting incidents in the city rose by 26%.
- From 2014 to 2018, they rose by only 19%.
"Democrats promised that the sky would fall, and it didn’t," said Brian Robinson, who was a top aide to Deal in 2014.
The bill Deal signed is the one that requires cities to allow guns in public parks, including Piedmont Park, which had hosted Music Midtown – until it was abruptly cancelled this week.
Democrats cite that cancellation as another reason to oppose looser gun laws, including constitutional carry.
Asked about the stats 11Alive found, Georgia Democratic party chair U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams said: "I don’t have all the statistics you have, but I have a second grader who just started second grade on Monday. And I know that we have leaders in this state who are willing to put their gun rights ahead of the rights of a second grader to go to school and come back home alive."
Williams and other critics of expanded gun rights cite polls that show voters mostly don’t want gun laws like constitutional carry.
This year, early voting will start just a few weeks after the scheduled date of the now-cancelled Music Midtown festival.