We didn't talk much about the Georgia governor's race because, well, the Second Amendment wasn't much of a topic. As a resident of the state, though, I had concerns. Both of Georgia's senators are Democrats, after all, and while Brian Kemp easily beat Stacy Abrams twice for the governor's office, this is a different ball game entirely.
Now, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is the governor-elect of my home state.
Yay. </sarcasm>
The question is, what does this mean?
Luckily, we have a bit of good news. The state legislature didn't really change all that much. The seats are gerrymandered, to some degree, to minimize the influence of the largely blue sections of cities like Atlanta, Macon, and Albany.
And that's good, because this is what Bottoms promised on her campaign website:
She will increase state support for local law enforcement by expanding GBI capacity, forensic resources, and specialized investigative assistance, especially for smaller jurisdictions. She will also invest in targeted violence reduction efforts, support universal background checks and a red flag law, expand diversion and treatment options for nonviolent cases, and strengthen reentry pathways through the Prison to Work initiative so more Georgians leaving prison have a real chance to succeed instead of cycling back into the system.
In other words, she wants to take Georgia down a pathway that would lead to a lot more gun control, rather than actually fixing some of the issues we currently have, such as Georgia's requirement that all NFA items be registered with the ATF.
Considering that Democrats managed to win all the statewide races, that means there's not going to be help from the attorney general's office on this, either. Current Attorney General Chris Carr's office refused to ever answer any emails about whether he'd do as some other states had done and follow the USDOJ's lead on the NFA issue, which means there's no hope of relief.
After all, you're deluded if you think Bottoms will sign legislation.
"Maybe they can pass some stuff really quickly before she comes into office?"
It would be nice, but the truth is that the General Assembly isn't in session, and there's no universe where calling a special session now wouldn't create a lot of pain and suffering for everyone involved and possibly do more damage to the state GOP down the road.
As a native Georgian, I don't like what I'm seeing. Considering that Texas did the same thing, and it was a place I'd considered as a fallback location if Georgia rolled blue, I'm not a particularly happy sort this morning.
I expected the right to lose. I didn't quite expect the bloodbath here in Georgia that I see in the cold light of morning.
This, ladies and gents, is what we mean when we say that elections matter. Every single one.
I know a lot of people stayed home because they were pissed about gas prices or something else, and there are reasons to be upset with the GOP, but we can now see just what the results of that are.
Let's hope the Georgia General Assembly, among others, has the testicular fortitude to hold the line against Bottoms and that the rest of the state wakes up and makes this anti-gun politician who let Atlanta burn and run lawless into a one-term governor.