Georgia Senate committee studies safe firearm storage after school shooting

ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia Senate committee tasked with studying safe firearm storage convened Thursday to hear from gun violence advocates and pediatricians who have treated children with gun-related injuries.

At the hearing, the Georgia Senate Safe Firearm Storage Committee questioned experts on what new rules and regulations might possibly reduce the state’s number of gun deaths and injuries. The meeting comes as the Peach State still reels from a fatal shooting two weeks ago at Apalachee High School that left four people dead.

Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, which ranks the state 46th nationally.

Permits and background checks are not required in order to purchase or carry firearms in Georgia. Those include assault weapons like the one used by the 14-year-old shooter at Apalachee High School. And despite Georgia having a higher gun violence rate than the national average, gun owners in the state are also not legally required to lock up or otherwise securely store firearms away from children.

Twenty-six states have adopted secure storage laws requiring gun owners to lock up their firearm. Research shows that such practices protect children and adults from unintentional shootings, gun suicides and gun theft.

Kiesha Fraser Doh, a pediatric emergency physician, told the committee that in just one year in Georgia, she’d handled more child firearm injuries than during the more than three years she worked in Virginia. In a single week, she often saw two or three such cases, she said.

Most such incidents occur within the injured child’s home, Doh said. Most of the children who pulled the trigger were either ages five and under or teenagers between the ages of 14 to 17.

Doh compared the issue to driving — arguing more safety regulations should be implemented for guns, just as they have been for cars to reduce vehicle injuries.

She suggested implementing tax credits for secure storage devices, as has been done in Louisiana and Virginia, as well as stronger child access prevention laws that impose penalties on gun owners for negligent storage around children.

Research from Everytown shows secure storage initiatives dramatically reduce youth gun violence, with households that lock firearms and ammunition seeing up to 85% fewer unintentional injuries among children and teens.

“We have so many tools and resources,” Doh said. “We just need to implement them.”

Doh’s colleague, Sofia Chaudhary, said gunshot wounds had skyrocketed in the 15 years she’d worked at pediatric emergency centers in Georgia, with more children dying from gun injuries than in car accidents.

Everytown has tracked data on gun injuries and deaths since 2015. Last year was the worst year on record in terms of the number of unintentional shootings by children in the United States. At least 157 people were killed and 270 were injured last year in unintentional shootings by children.

Paige Howell, the Atlanta Veterans Administration’s suicide prevention coordinator, argued secure storage of firearms could also reduce veteran suicide rates, which are significantly higher than they are for other adults and which often involve a firearm.

“It’s not just PTSD. This is just one aspect of what’s taking place in our society,” Jarrad Turner, an army veteran who joined Howell, said. “People are struggling.”

Students from the Morgan Oliver School, an independent K-6 school in Atlanta, also appeared before the committee, chanting and holding signs with messages like “No More Silence End Gun Violence.”

Two advocates in attendance, Aaliyah Strong and Jorryn Butler, also urged the committee to invest in more mental health resources and mentorship opportunities for young men, as well as in better security in schools.

Strong founded “Tyme to Thrive Beyond Grief,” an Atlanta nonprofit that helps victims of gun violence, after her fiancé Tyshon Ross was fatally shot while working security at a lounge in downtown Atlanta in 2022. She brought 18-year-old Butler with her to speak about the benefits mentorship programs could have in helping young Black men find opportunities and stay out of trouble.

The same year Tyshon Ross was killed, firearm injuries were the leading cause of death among American children and teens. They were also among the five leading causes of death for people ages 44 and younger in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jessie Ojeda, a state policy attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, proposed a statewide safe storage public-education campaign through radio, television and social-media ads and with in-person events to spread awareness. A California-based nonprofit, the Giffords Law Center studies gun violence prevention efforts nationwide.

The committee is set to have another meeting on Oct. 11. It’s chaired by Senator Emanuel Jones, a Democrat, and features fellow Democrats Frank Ginn and David Lucas as well as Republican Senators Marty Harbin and Ben Watson.

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