ATLANTA — A Georgia legislative committee is recommending new laws in the wake of the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in September.
Colt Gray, the accused teen shooter, and his father, Colin Gray, face charges in the killing that took four lives and injured seven others.
The committee assembled prior to the Apalachee mass shooting but made its recommendations very much with those circumstances in mind.
"I will forever remember September the fourth," said state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur) on Thursday, as he was about to close the business of the Senate Study Committee on Safe Firearms Storage.
Chairman Jones noted the mass shooting, a chilling reminder of Georgia’s years-long stalemate over gun policy. Gun rights backers like Gov. Brian Kemp pushed to ease gun access laws while many Democrats tried in vain to restrict them.
The senate study committee drew vocal support from school children and their parents – and some skepticism from conservatives. In the end, the committee made recommendations that stepped lightly around gun restrictions.
It recommended the following:
- Tax and insurance incentives for the purchase of safe gun storage devices.
- Penalties for adults when children access their guns to commit crimes.
- A statewide alert system for whenever potentially dangerous students transfer from one school to another.
- And a 10-day waiting period for the purchase of assault rifles – unless the purchaser has a gun carry permit. Such permits are now optional in Georgia.
"This should not be about politics," said Heather Hallett, who is with a group called the Georgia Majority for Gun Safety.
Most Georgia gun bills have proposed restrictions that have gone nowhere in the Republican-led legislature. Gallett says the committee’s emphasis on gun safety and not gun control should yield bipartisan results.
"Most gun owners, most Republicans, most Democrats, most non-gun owners agree that there are steps that you can take that have nothing to do with taking away people's guns," Hallett said after the committee adjourned. "It's about creating a culture of safe gun ownership."
A new session of the legislature will convene in January, and lawmakers can pre-file bills next month.