Georgia School Shooting - What Now? Anything? © 2024 Phillip Evans

Due to his age, the murderer who took the lives of two 14-year-old students and two adults at Apalachee High School, and wounded nine others, in Winder, GA on Sept. 4th, 2024, is not likely to get life in prison without parole. So he could theoretically be turned loose when he is in his 40's or 50's. And that would be way too soon.

Barrow County Mugshot of Winder, GA school murderer Colt Gray (photo color corrected and sharpened)

How will his victims and their families feel about that?

How do they feel now that state law in Georgia, and the school board failed them? 

State law and the school board failed all of these victims of mass-murder and wounding by preventing lawful carriers from providing a sorely needed layer of security in their school, without replacing that lost layer with sufficient armed agents of the government. That is adding injury to insult, literally.

If the government is going to make a place off-limits to self-defense, it had better provide at LEAST the same level of protection that citizens would provide for themselves if they were allowed to do so. 

Dialing 911 and waiting is NEVER a good option when you are under lethal attack by a madman intent on killing as many innocents as he can.

The ONLY SANE and MORAL option is for adults right there to shoot back immediately. 

Georgia law is neither sane nor moral. It penalizes good citizens and prevents them from doing the necessary job of fighting back with the only effective tool there is, a firearm.

If effective self-defense is not a right in schools for the protection of the most innocent, why even call it a right?

From today forward, I never want to hear another Gold Dome Republican in Atlanta say, "It takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun", unless he or she puts forth a proper pro-self-defense bill. 

Because the lie on that was exposed yesterday. The good guys are not permitted to have a gun on school property.

There are not enough special-favored and unlicensed and untrained court clerks (who are authorized to legally carry a gun on K-12 school property) to provide any real measure of safety.

The murderer is not a bad looking "kid". He doesn't look like a monster, but he is one. 

Know that even now there are more of them, waiting for their moment to strike, even now making their diabolical plans.

Georgia's state lawmakers have KNOWN that one of these monsters would eventually strike. How do I know that? It's because none of them EVER guaranteed that it wouldn't happen. There's a reason for that. It's that evil always strikes when it sees the opportunity. That's only common sense.

School boards since at least 2014 have been able to grant permission for teachers, staff, parents, and grandparents to legally carry a firearm on school property. They have been loath to do so, with only perhaps two or three tiny rural school districts taking advantage of this safety option. Laurens and Fannin Counties come to mind. That pails to what is needed. It's like giving a man in the desert a single drop of water.

Is Barrow County one of them? I doubt it, but even if they do, it certainly wasn't to the degree needed. This is why school boards need to be removed from the decision-making process on this. State law needs to preempt this wicked denial of our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That right doesn't vanish merely because we step foot on school property, does it?

It's high time that licensed-to-carry citizens with proof of a firearms safety course be authorized to carry in "School Safety Zones" as the General Assembly ironically calls them, to provide genuine safety and security. Other states have done it, as I outlined in my first article on this tragic news. Do those states care more about the innocent than our state?

Until the General Assembly takes its job seriously and acts, it needs to rename "School Safety Zones" to "Victim-Rich Zones". At least that would be a good measure of honesty.

For five years I've been warning our state lawmakers this would happen. How many more years do they need to make up their minds to allow human beings their God-given right to protect themselves?

How much more bloodshed and how many more victims do they need to see the light?

Georgia K-12 School Shooting / 4 Murdered 9 Injured © 2024 Phillip Evans

Georgia Lawmakers Call K-12 Defenseless Zones, "School Safety Zones"  <----- This is an example of sad IRONY

My fear has unfortunately just been realized:

"Four people were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Nine others were transported to hospitals with injuries".

It isn't like our gun-rights "friendly" lawmakers have been unaware of the impending danger that has now struck our state.

Over the last few years (since 2019) I have emailed Georgia lawmakers (mostly Republicans), and it is Republicans who correctly state that, "It takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun", to express my concern over K-12 schools being sitting-duck zones. 

Georgia's OCGA weapons code makes it an arrestable and jailable crime to conceal a firearm merely to keep yourself and others safe from armed criminals while on K-12 school property.

How does that make any sense? Since 2022 Georgia has allowed non-licensed adult citizens to carry a firearm or other legal weapon in public for self-defense if they have a clean non-violent criminal record, and that is a good thing.

But how about letting LICENSED carriers carry concealed while on K-12 property? Have licensed carriers been a problem in our state? Is it that we can't be trusted enough?

Trusted and free citizens should be able to carry a weapon where criminals are able to bring a weapon to do evil. If a "good guy with a gun" can't actually have one, that makes a mockery of the fundamental idea of self-defense.

Do lawmakers really think waiting on 911 to send armed government agents is a great idea while a mass murderer is shooting at innocent children and adults? Set a stopwatch for one minute and imagine being at a school listening to bullets being fired as those 60 seconds tick by, while people are screaming in terror. 

Would you want a gun in your hand to try and stop the murderer? Any sane moral person would. Are our Republican lawmakers sane and moral, or have they just been giving us lip service to the idea of armed self-defense?

If children are compelled to be in school, are they unworthy of an immediate armed response from willing adults that are charged with their care and protection?

Many Republicans under the Gold Dome will appeal to the fact that school boards can legally grant written permission to teachers, staff, and parental caretakers to be armed at school, but THEY KNOW this will NOT happen. 

Passing the buck will NOT save lives! They can pass good laws, and it's their responsibility to do so!

Only two tiny rural counties have been in the news in the last few years that have allowed any staff at all to carry in their K-12 schools.

This recent bloodshed is a tragic result, not just of a 14-year-old murder, but also of a statewide disarmament policy which prevents immediate and effective measures to fight back against a murderer as he is in the act. He should have been shot on the spot by a teacher, staff member, or parent to save lives.

Listen folks - chairs, erasers, books, and pencils will never be sufficient tools to defend children against a madman with a gun.

And one or two resource officers for an entire school is not sufficient protection, especially when there are times they may not even be present! The time it takes to run from one building to another will cost lives. Arming good citizens will give blanket protection to save more lives.

Take action and see if your Georgia lawmaker has any heart left in his or her chest to let liberty be the solution, and to stop disarming good people under the false pretense of "School Safety Zone".

Lives are at stake, let NO MORE BLOOD BE SHED!