Bullets in schools or more government regulation? You choose

“(The Constitutional Carry Act, SB 319) makes sure that law-abiding Georgians, including our daughters and your family too, can protect themselves without having to have permission from your state government”- Governor Brian Kemp (4-12-22)

The Citizen recently ran a column regarding the fact that bullets were found in a restroom at McIntosh High School ( https://thecitizen.com/2026/01/09/bullets-found-in-mcintosh-high-school-restroom/). Regardless of our politics, all reasonable Peachtree City residents know that this situation is unacceptable. The area where we may differ is enacting solutions to the problem. But before we look at that aspect, let’s review the broader issue.

Per the above, Governor Kemp has always believed that the more guns we have, the safer we are. Thus he signed legislation loosening firearm regulation, even though a UGA study found that 70 % of Georgians opposed  open carry legislation (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqkXht055CkcRL_l52tleqT-zpnl6vbB/view ). But does having more guns and looser regulation make us safer?

Because the gun lobby does not want it know, exact figures on guns are difficult, but there are sources (https://www.thetrace.org/2023/03/guns-america-data-atf-total/ ). Per this study, in 1968 there were 86 million guns in the USA versus 513 million in the most recent year. So, the number of guns in the US has increased dramatically over the years. So, have gun deaths gone down?

The USA grew from 200 million to 341 million between 1968 and 2023, 71%. In 2023, there were 46,728 gun-related deaths in America. There were only 20,336 in 1968 (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/05/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-us/#how-has-the-number-of-u-s-gun-deaths-changed-over-time ). That is an increase of 130%, nearly twice the rate of our population growth. The bottom line is that the “gun death” problem has gotten much worse, despite having more firearms. These deaths were most heavily concentrated in Southern states, all of which have looser arms control than many other states (https://www.gunviolencearchive.org).

During the last session of the Georgia legislature, gun control bills were introduced, but few made it very far. Per the NRA- “Despite efforts by anti-gun legislators to restrict your rights, no gun-control bills moved forward, while several pro-gun bills advanced.” (https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/update-from-the-states/#:~:text=March%206%20was%20Crossover%20Day%20in%20the,moved%20forward%2C%20while%20several%20pro%2Dgun%20bills%20advanced. ).

Further, the Georgia General Assembly prohibits local governments from enacting their own laws restricting firearms (i.e.-firearms preemption statute O.C.G.A. § 16-11-173 ).  Apparently, our state legislators do not believe that our local city and county officials know what is best for their residents.

As for the McIntosh situation, Georgia’s schools must make safety a priority, per the DOE (https://gadoe.org/whole-child-supports/focus-on-safety/ ). Knowing the high level of competence of some of the staff directly involved, my belief is that the Fayette County school system is currently doing what it can to prevent guns from entering our schools. But the firearm violence problem is much broader than just local school safety.

So, what have other states and nations done to lessen the number of firearms injuries? Here are the more obvious actions that could and should be taken- a. repeal Kemp’s open carry legislation; b. raise firearms/ammunition taxes to pay for increased gun control measures; c. enact and aggressively enforce “red flag” laws to remove guns from criminal and the mentally unbalanced; d. raise the minimum age for ownership, prohibiting teens to own guns; e. abolish unregulated gun show sales; f. eliminate buying guns through the mail; and g. expand background checks.

The firearm deaths in Georgia and our nation increase from decade to decade. The situation will only change when we elect legislators who endorse and aggressively pursue gun control.