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Georgia State Senator Marty Harbin who represents a district south of the metro Atlanta area wrote a column in a local paper  the day after the Winder school massacre. Typical of many GOP General Assembly members, it was incredibly unfeeling, naïve and unresponsive.

A day after this tragedy, Harbin’s response is that he- a. is on the Senate Firearms Study Committee”, b.  is a long-time NRA member, c. believes in firearm training, d. doesn’t want to infringe on “Constitutional rights”. His response to this bloody massacre is nothing short of incredible. Nothing at all about controlling guns, the underlying cause of the problem.

Harbin refers repeatedly to the Second Amendment without ever citing it. Here is what it actually says, referring to militias, not individuals-”A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.

Four Georgia High School students and teachers were murdered by a child. No where does the Constitution state that 14-year-olds must be allowed to carry AR 15s. Our US rate of children dying due to guns is 6 times that of neighboring Canada (https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/25/health/surgeon-general-gun-violence-advisory/index.html).

Primarily due to pro-NRA politicians like Harbin opposing any gun regulation at all, firearm use in the US has been out of control for decades. Back in July 2016, American Medical Association President Steven J. Stack, M.D., made the following revolutionary statement- “With approximately 30,000 men, women and children dying each year at the barrel of a gun in elementary schools, movie theaters, workplaces, houses of worship and on live television, the United States faces a public health crisis of gun violence.”

Dr. Stack went on to state that we have more firearm violence than other developed nations. And that unregulated/poorly regulated possession of handguns and rifles is- “a serious threat to the public’s health.”

More recently, Surgeon General Murthy (6-25-24) has stated that the gun violence epidemic is getting worse and “is the leading cause of death among kids and teens.”

Bullying clearly has increased due to electronic communications. Schools have been raising red flags regarding cyberbullying and deteriorating student mental health.  However, no other developed nation has shown our lack of concern for mental health services (https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/surveys/2021/oct/mental-health-care-needs-us-10-other-high-income-countries-survey). 

Three million American adolescents have seriously thought about suicide. That’s 19% of our teens. Almost half of them (9%) have already attempted suicide (https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html ). And many students are being arrested for gun possession, often stealing them from oblivious parents, not even bothering to lock firearms away.

The United States had 48,000 gun deaths just last year, over 130 per day (https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html ). Half were suicides, made easy by guns. The rest were almost all homicides. Plus, there were even more gun incidents whereby the injured lived. Nearly three-fourths of these were firearm assaults.

It has been nearly a decade since the conservative AMA made the above statement and provided recommendations (addressed below). In just 8 years, US gun deaths are up 60%. Plus, no surprise, we have more guns than ever.

Based on gun manufacturer records, there are an estimated 400 million US guns, only 15% of which are registered (per AMMO.com). An astounding one third of American adults now own a gun; even one-fifth of Democrats own a firearm (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/ ).

Owners cite personal protection as the primary reason for ownership (72%). However, only about half of all Americans believe that gun ownership increases safety. Only 37% of non-gun owners think that safety is increased via gun ownership.

America must be realistic and stop moving in the wrong direction. The NRA “everyone get a gun” approach is just plain counterproductive. The more guns we have, the more firearm deaths-a fact.

There are reasonable solutions short of taking away our guns (I own one). For decades, AMA policy has advocated federal and state gun laws which mandated- a waiting period before purchasing, background checks for all gun purchasers, stronger enforcement of existing firearm laws, plus mandatory penalties for illegal firearm possession and gun crimes.

Providing training on how to use a gun, Harbin’s primary recommendation, is not solving the gun crisis and never will. Doing the same thing over and over… although it is obviously not working… is one definition of insanity. Senator Harbin and other GOP General Assembly members-stop making excuses and act to strengthen Georgia’s gun laws.