Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock is urging his colleagues in Congress to pass more strict gun control in the wake of a recent school shooting in the state which left four dead and more injured.
Warnock’s call for gun restrictions came in the wake of comments from vice-presidential candidate JD Vance who described the current state of things as a “fact of life.”
School Shooting
On September 4, a shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia was conducted by a 14-year-old teenager with a gun that his father allegedly had previously purchased for him.
Reports indicate the weapon was an “AR-style” weapon and the gunman shot a total of 13 people in the incident.
Vance’s Comments
JD Vance had described the incident as a “fact of life” caused by US schools being “soft targets” because of gun restrictions and he called for schools to have better security.
These comments came as a response to a reporter’s question during a campaign stop about the Georgia school shooting in Phoenix, Arizona.
Democratic Pushback
Critics have seized upon Vance’s comments as being heartless and amplified them as an example of Republican attitudes on school shootings.
“School shootings are not just a fact of life. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children—and we will,” wrote Vice President Kamala Harris on X.
Lying Harris
This line of attack has angered Vance, who accused those repeating it as lying and taking his words out of context.
“Kamala wants to take security out of our schools instead of protecting our children. Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said. More desperation from the biggest fraud in American politics,” Vance wrote in response to Harris’ X post.
Responding to Vance
Warnock also chimed in on Vance’s comments, pushing back against the idea that improving security at school would fix the issue.
“[Vance] talks about hardening our schools and making them secure – well the reality is this is happening in spas, in shopping malls,” said Warnock on CNN. “It’s happening in houses of worship, in medical clinics.”
Sitting Ducks
On Sunday, four days after the shooting, Senator Warnock again responded to the issue on NBC’s Meet the Press, advocating for what he sees as common-sense measures for guns.
“We’re all sitting ducks. And any country that allows this to continue without putting forward just common sense safety measures is a country that has – in a tragic way – lost its way,” said Warnock.
Political Impasse
Warnock lamented that progress has been stalled on sufficient gun control measures so far in the US legislature.
“We are at an impasse because there are people in … politics … who are doing the bidding of the corporatist gun lobby even as they line their pockets with the blood of our children,” Warnock said.
Not Enough
In 2022, Congress passed the first gun control bill in nearly thirty years that imposes tougher restrictions including background checks on buyers.
However, Warnock expressed in the interview that this measure was “clearly not enough.”
Pressed on Gun Buybacks
During the NBC interview, Warnock was pressed on whether Harris should be advocating mandatory gun buybacks, a policy she previously supported during her 2019 campaign.
Warnock didn’t respond to the question directly, saying “We’re not going to be able to get where we need to go without action. “We’re not going to be able to get where we need to go without action in Congress. We’ve got to be able to pass some laws to deal with this.”
Sensitive Issue
This push for stricter gun control measures, especially if it includes calls for mandatory gun confiscation programs, may be tricky during the current election season.
Harris has taken steps to walk back her past support for gun buyback programs, declaring during the recent presidential debate with Donald Trump that “we’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Called Out by the NRA
On X, the National Rifle Association seized on Warnock’s comments, seeking to frame Harris as wanting to take Americans’ guns.
“Kamala Harris wants to confiscate millions of guns from law-abiding Americans,” the NRA wrote, posting a clip of Warnock’s interview.
