ATLANTA — Voters in Georgia, angry, worried and fed up over crime, want the state to enact new laws they think will reduce gun violence. That’s the clear message they’re sending in the latest 11Alive Survey USA poll conducted statewide this past weekend.
But it’s not so clear if the new laws they support would help.
11Alive’s poll, conducted from July 21-24, of voters and issues in this year’s elections, shows that 68 percent “strongly support” universal background checks of all gun buyers, including at gun shows, and online; 17 percent “somewhat support” the checks.
68% Strongly Support
17% Somewhat Support
5% Somewhat Oppose
4% Strongly Oppose
6% Not Sure
Additionally, 60 percent “strongly support” so-called red-flag laws, to allow civilians and police to ask a judge to suspend access to guns by those who are a threat to themselves or others; 22 percent “somewhat support” red-flag laws.
60% Strongly Support
22% Somewhat Support
6% Somewhat Oppose
5% Strongly Oppose
8% Not Sure
“Universal background checks, I love it,” Atlanta gun dealer Donald Birch said on Wednesday afternoon.
Birch, and Willard “Chevy” Leverett, of Range Guns and Safes, have long supported FBI background checks of all gun buyers.
But red-flag laws, they believe, may violate the due process rights of gun owners.
“I could just be mad at someone and I could go to a judge and say, ‘Hey, he doesn't need a gun,’” Birch said. “Now you're possibly taking the gun out of a Good Samaritan's hands that can possibly help people when in time of need.”
In the 2022 race for Georgia governor, Democrat Stacey Abrams says if she’s elected, she will support universal background checks and red-flag laws.
Republican incumbent Brian Kemp earlier this year signed the new law allowing people to carry guns, open or concealed, in Georgia without needing a background check or permit.
Do background checks and red flag laws reduce violent crime?
Illinois has a red-flag law, and that’s where a mass shooter with a troubled past legally owned guns and killed seven people at a July 4th parade.
The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority says there is no clear evidence yet that firearm restraining orders prevent gun violence.
And the Shorenstein Center studied all the research on background checks and could find no evidence that background checks alone reduce firearm deaths.
Gun Dealer Willard “Chevy” Leverett is frustrated, along with everyone else.
“If you’re a criminal and you can’t get a gun out of the store, you’re going to make a way to get a gun. It sucks but it’s rough. It is what it is,” he said.