State Democrats urge Kemp to open special legislative session to address gun safety

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - On Friday, Georgia Democrats urged Gov. Brian Kemp and his Republican colleagues into action on gun safety.

From the south steps of the state Capitol, they demanded Kemp open a special legislative session to address a dozen gun safety and mental health bills they say, were ignored for the past two sessions of the state’s General Assembly.

“Because of that inaction, predictably, we are here again,” said State Rep. Saira Draper (D-Atlanta). “We had the policy tools to prevent this tragedy from ever happening in the first place and that we did not use them because my Republican colleagues choose to gamble with our children’s lives rather than face the wrath of the gun lobby.”

As the press conference wrapped up, Stella Silva-Garcia, the mother of a Georgia student, cried out to lawmakers for them to do more to get Republicans on board with the measures.

“Hug your family, because it might be the last hug,” she yelled. “This is our children.”

After, Silva-Garcia spoke to reporters, showing them a picture her son and his classmates in Alpharetta received the night before. It showed a picture of a gun and the names of several schools with the words “(you’re) next.”

“I couldn’t stay quiet,” she told cameras. “Now that it’s here, in our backyard, how are we not going to do something about it? This is real, this is a nightmare, this is Georgia’s students.”

She kept her son Lucas home from school over the threat, instead bringing him with her to the rally at the Capitol.

“We have to take action to do something,” Lucas said, standing next to his mom with his arm around her. “This is terrifying kids, all ages.”

Kemp’s office responded almost immediately to the request for a special session, indicating it was unlikely to happen, at least anytime soon.

“As the governor has said before, now is the time for investigation and to mourn those we’ve lost, not politics,” said Garrison Douglas, a spokesman with the governor’s office. “The governor is ensuring that law enforcement and the Wildcat community continue to have the resources they need for as long as they need it.”

It’s a sentiment Kemp expressed out in front of Apalachee High School on Wednesday, hours after two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting, the latest mass violence event at an American school.

Other Republican lawmakers have taken the same stance, backing away from policy discussions for the time being.

“There’s always a time for politics, this is not the time for that,” said U.S. Congressman Mike Collins, whose district includes Apalachee High School. “Let’s take care of these young people, let’s take care of these people that are grieving let’s take care of these people that got hurt and injured and give that some time.”

“We don’t have a gun problem in this country. We’ve got mental health problems in this country and we’ve got moral issues in this country.”

But Democrats, who have recently proposed bills that would require safe storage of firearms, and even tax credits for those who do, said the time to discuss preventative legislation was well before the latest school shooting.

“If you say that the time after a mass casualty is not the time to talk about solutions, and you also indicate that you are not interested in talking about these solutions before tragedy strikes, maybe you’re just not interested in solutions at all,” said Rep. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek).

“I do agree with the governor on some level,” said Draper. “Wednesday was not the ideal time to talk about policy. The ideal time to have these discussions would have been before the senseless murders of Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, Ricky Aspinwall, and Christina Irimie.”

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