The city of Atlanta is the largest city in the state of Georgia. It’s the state capital. It’s the focus of much of the attention of many of Georgia’s residents, having the most of just about anything in the state.

However, Atlanta isn’t the state of Georgia.

For example, most communities managed to figure out that there’s no need for a million streets named “Peachtree.” Atlanta hasn’t.

Yet those differences don’t seem to exist when you’re the mayor of Atlanta.

 Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said something has to change with Georgia’s gun laws. However, Governor Brian Kemp disagrees.

In her news conference on how she will address it, she said the state needs to tighten gun control measures because the laws in Georgia are so lax.

Solving the issue of violent crime in the city is complicated, Mayor Bottoms said. She also said that to start to make a difference, there have to be fewer guns on the street.

“In Georgia we have some of the most lax gun laws in the country, anywhere in the country,” the mayor said, Tuesday. 

Kemp called any changes to current gun legislation ridiculous, and said the Mayor and Atlanta Police need to take responsibility for the crime rate in the city.

“Well I mean, that’s ridiculous, that has nothing to do with the problems we are seeing in Atlanta. The gun laws that are on the books are no different than they were in previous administrations and we weren’t seeing these kind of issues,” he said.

The mayor called on state leaders to fix what she calls “lax gun laws.” However, Second Amendment Expert and former Federal Prosecutor Bret Williams said Georgia is actually pretty average when it comes to gun laws.

If there’s one bright side to Bottoms’ attempt to push the state into doing something, it’s that she has absolutely no power to do much of anything. Thanks to preemption, she can’t even pass gun control in her own city.

However, Kemp makes a valid point, and that’s how gun laws haven’t changed since before Bottoms took office. If guns are the problem, then why hasn’t the amount of violence been constant. Why, it’s almost like there are other factors at play here.

Now, Bottoms knows she doesn’t have the pull to do anything. She knows the legislature won’t be in session until next year. She also knows that Democrats are a distinct minority in the legislature.

In other words, all she’s doing is spouting off.

That means she’s doing one of two things, if not both. One is that she’s deflecting from her own failures. This is a popular move among Democrats, blaming others for their inability to keep their communities safe.

The other is that she’s angling for a gubernatorial campaign. After all, following Georgia seeming to flip blue during the 2020 election, she likely feels a little froggy and may figure it’s her time to leverage her experience as mayor of the state’s largest city into the governor’s mansion.

However, if so, she needs to step up and clean up her city first. Gun control isn’t likely to fly through most of Georgia. If she’s wanting to be governor, she should probably find another issue to launch a campaign from.

Of course, all that governor stuff is just speculation.

Even if she’s not running for governor, she would do well to remember that most people in this state don’t really care what Atlanta has to say about much of anything, especially when it’s the city’s mayor flapping her gums and not the state government. Somehow, though, I don’t think she can get out of her bubble long enough to learn that fact.