Mayor Andre Dickens issued the following message on gun violence in America on the evening of Friday, September 6, 2024.
You can view on the City of Atlanta’s Instagram here.
Below is the text of the mayor’s statement.
This is Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
We’ve had a pretty strong week here in the city. We announced the City’s largest investment in homelessness, reported that the City’s credit rating is now AAA (the highest it’s ever been) and crime including homicides is down once again.
That said, as a father, my heart pains for the lives we lost in Winder, Georgia earlier this week. The students and faculty members that were killed and injured didn’t deserve that.
All of the families, classmates, and colleagues of those victims are devastated and hurting. In all honesty, every community in Georgia is hurting and needs healing.
All from a senseless act of violence perpetrated by a sick individual who had access to an AR-15, a weapon of war – that was given to him at 13 years of age.
What world are we living in?
As Mayor, my mind wonders what we can do to prevent such tragic acts.
Here in Atlanta, the progress we’ve seen on violent crime is driven by strategic investments in youth, jobs, our police and firefighters, mental health resources, parks, nightlife, and building upon the work of the Mayor’s Office of Violence Reduction.
Despite these advancements, 84% of homicides are gun-related. That’s almost all of them!
Let me be clear…
It’s the guns.
Guns in the wrong hands at the wrong time is the problem.
The violence in Winder wasn’t only caused by the actions of one deranged individual. They were aided by the intentional INACTION of policymakers throughout the government.
Gun violence is the leading cause of homicides for our children.
Apparently, the choice has been made for us to live in a world where we place guns over the lives of our children. It’s a policy decision made by those in halls of Congress and throughout our state.
This is unacceptable. We can and must do better.
Over the last two and a half years, my administration has partnered with everyone around the city from the Boys and Girls Clubs to Big Brother/big sisters, YMCA, 100 Black Men, the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, Chris 180, churches, Silence the Shame, community foundations, Next Level Boys Academy, Atlanta Public Schools, and so many more.
And yet, one simple truth remains, unless we reduce access to guns by enacting commonsense legislation, the gun violence epidemic will continue to plague us, and worse, our children will continue to pay the price.
We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks and red flag laws that would’ve kept this killer from accessing a gun at his home.
We’ve spent time and funding on affordable housing, homelessness, mental health, jobs, gun safety, gun buybacks, youth programming, scholarships, and everything in between.
Yet a bullet from a gun can rip right through their bodies and right through the soul of a community.
From the White House to the State House, we need all people of good conscience to move with urgency and address this problem.
This will not only save lives in rural, suburban, and urban schools but also in households where a family argument turns into domestic violence, a child accesses an unlocked gun, or someone takes their own life in a moment of despair.
We can and must make a different choice and I for one choose to build a world where our kids can go to school with their eyes full of hope and wonder instead of worry.
Enough is enough.
Enough was enough a long time ago.
Note: This is an opinion article as designated by the the category placement on this website. It is not news coverage. If this disclaimer is funny to you, it isn’t aimed at you — but some of your friends and neighbors honestly have trouble telling the difference.
