Georgia School Shooting Thrusts Gun Control Back into Election Spotlight

A student gun control campaigner in Georgia told Newsweek Wednesday that safety was on the ballot this November, after four were killed and nine injured at a high school in the state.
The shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder sparked the well-worn messages of “thoughts and prayers” from politicians — messages that gun safety advocates said are not enough.
Keep up with the latest US Election news on Newsweek’s Election Live Blog.
Sophie Chang, a volunteer with Students Demand Action, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, said the shooting was “gut wrenching, heartbreaking, and enraging” for students across the United States.
“Our safety is on the ballot again this year,” Chang told Newsweek. “It’s so important that we look at future generations and what they are going to go through.
“If this is my generation, I can only imagine how bad gun safety will get and how often these shootings will occur, if we keep using condolences and not putting those condolences into action.”
Everytown said in August that gun violence on school grounds rose by 31% last year and that many school shooters obtain their firearm from their home or a relative’s house.
In the 2023-2024 school year, at least 144 incidents of gunfire were reported on school grounds across the U.S.
When the shooting happened Wednesday, Chang, who lives 45 minutes from the scene, started receiving messages from her friends.
“I was just shocked,” Chang said. “There was shooting in Atlanta a couple months ago and there are shootings all the time, but it took me a while to process that something that brutal, that tragic, could happen so close to my home.”
The student is heavily involved in gun safety campaigning and local politics, and met students from Apalachee a few months ago.
“I know people from that school, I know people who could easily have been shot, been part of a death toll because of gun violence, it really shook me up and made me understand how real it is,” Chang added.
Georgia’s General Assembly created a committee during its last session to propose secure storage policies, with the first meeting held just over two weeks ago.
Georgia has some of the most liberal gun laws in the country.
Chang told Newsweek that she has lived through multiple reports of shooting threats while in school.
“I think it really speaks to how easy it is in Georgia to get a gun, how easy it is t ogo to your dad’s office and pick up a gun that hasn’t been safely locked or safely secured,” she said.
“Honestly it’s just heartbreaking to me how easy it is for these people to access these firearms.”
Vice President Kamala Harris called Wednesday’s shooting a “senseless tragedy” on top of other senseless tragedies as she opened a rally in New Hampshire a few hours after the incident.
The Democratic presidential candidate said prayers and thoughts would continue to be sent to those affected, but also that action was needed.
“It’s just outrageous that every day in the United States of America that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” Harris said. “We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in this country, once and for all.”
Harris has mentioned an assault weapon ban and universal background checks as part of her past campaigning, but the high school shooting in Winder brought the issue of gun control into sharper focus.
At her rally Wednesday afternoon, Harris then said she was “going off script” and asked those present if they had participated in active shooter drills, with many younger voters raising their hands.
Harris said students should be focused on learning, not distracted by the fear of a shooter bursting through the classroom door.
“This is one of the many issues at stake in this election,” Harris said, before getting back to her prepared remarks.
Republican candidate Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after the shooting.
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” Trump said. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
At the time of Trump’s post, little information had been given about the shooter.
Authorities later named the alleged gunman as 14-year-old student Colt Gray, who was arrested by police and remains in custody.
“It’s been one month since school began, and already we’re met with the terror that our children may not make it home alive,” Karen Sedatole, a volunteer with the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action, said in a press release.
“Thoughts and prayers are empty and meaningless – we need our lawmakers to act. Pass common sense gun laws to protect our children so we don’t have to grieve for empty seats at our dinner tables.”
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also condemned the shooting and called for Congress to take action.
“We need universal background checks and we need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, invest in violence-prevention programs and pass a national red flag law. Enough is enough,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Everytown estimates around 54% of gun owners do not lock all of their guns securely, with 4.6 million children living in a home with at least one unlocked firearm.
The Republican Party’s platform for 2024 makes very little mention of firearms or gun control, with only a brief mention of the right to bear arms when talking about fundamental freedoms.
That contrasts with its last platform, from 2016 and reused in 2020, which dedicated an entire section to the Second Amendment.
Democrats, by contrast, have included an entire section on countering “the scourge of gun violence”, which includes a rundown of President Biden’s efforts to tackle the issue since 2021.