Editor’s Note: Jack Bernard is the former Director of Health Planning for Georgia and a corporate SVP. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Health in Fayette County and on the Executive Board of the Georgia Public Health Association. The views expressed in this commentary are his.
After the Apalachee High School massacre in Winder, Gov. Brian Kemp posted on social media that he was “praying for the safety of those in our classrooms.”
He has expressed similar thoughts about prayer being the solution to gun violence in the past. But his prayers obviously are not working, a fact he continually chooses to ignore. In fact, he has chosen to make our already inadequate state gun laws even weaker.
In April 2022, Kemp signed Senate Bill 319 into law, which permitted anyone with a gun license to carry concealed weapons, saying it – “makes sure that law-abiding Georgians…can protect themselves without having to have permission from your state government.” Thus, it also gives free rein to OK Corral style shoot-outs since all the drunks in the local bar can have weapons.
And that is not just my opinion; it is a fact. A 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found regarding the open carry laws that – “such laws are associated with 13-15 percent higher aggregate violent crime rates ten years after adoption.”
The Winder mass murder of children by a young person with a gun is absolutely horrible… but not unique. The Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, with 26 fatalities, including 20 first-grade kids, occurred 14 years ago. The Virginia Tech shootings took place in 2007 – 32 people were murdered. Mass school murders are now a fact of life in America. But do they have to be?
The National Rifle Association says: “Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks.”
But that is untrue. The more guns equal less violence philosophy preached by Kemp and other NRA-influenced politicians has been repeatedly proven to be a total fallacy.
Let’s compare the United States to other democracies with tougher gun laws.
The homicide by firearm rate is 4.52 per 100,000 population for the U.S. When we look at other democracies with stronger gun control, we see much lower rates. For example- England at 0.01, Australia at 0.14, and France at 0.24 per 100,000.
Of the 50 states, Georgia has the tenth most homicides per capita by firearms. Currently, 39 states also have stronger gun control laws than Georgia. That is why our shooting deaths per capita far exceeds the national average.
If we look at the five states with the toughest gun laws (California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York), all have firearm death rates lower than the US average. However, if we examine the five states with the highest gun murders per capita, four of them (Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan and Mississippi), all have looser gun laws than most other states. The lone exception is Maryland. Logically, more firearm deaths are directly related to having more guns.
The Giffords Law Center gave Georgia a failing grade for gun control. Kemp’s response was, “I’ll wear this ‘F’ as a badge of honor.” In fact, when given the opportunity to have real reform and lower gun deaths in Georgia, he has gone the opposite direction.
We are stuck with Brian Kemp for the short term until 2026. Hopefully, then we can get a governor who is more caring and will push reasonable gun control measures through the General Assembly. But when Kemp runs for Senator, as he assuredly will, please remember his blatant refusal to protect our children and the price they paid.
