Dallas Anne Duncan
Gun laws in Georgia are simple.
Aside from a couple of hunting, fishing and parental permission-related exceptions, Georgians can’t own handguns until they’re 18. No weapons or long guns while on the premises of one of the state’s nuclear power facilities. Sawed-off shotguns and rifles, machine guns and silencers — with few exceptions — are illegal. If you have a concealed carry permit, it’s advisable to have it on you at all times. If you’ve been convicted of certain crimes, you’ve lost your privilege to own firearms.
Other than the provision of being a minor, there’s not much codified about who is able to purchase or own a gun in Georgia, and how dealers and private sellers make sure who they’re selling to isn’t going to commit a crime or use their new weaponry for nefarious purposes.
But after years of seeing gun violence, mass shootings and school shootings hit headlines, youth activists across the country decided it’s worth a shot to take a stand and demand commonsense gun control legislation, and a movement was born.
NOW WALK IT OUT
“I think I have grown up in a generation where every day I looked at the news and I see a tragedy or shooting, specifically with schools. I am a high schooler. I go to school every day. Kids who are exactly the same as me are not coming home in the afternoon because someone shot up the school, and that scares me a lot,” said 16-year-old Eli Hughes, a sophomore at Etowah High School in Woodstock.
Hughes, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the singular “they” pronoun, heard about the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and decided enough was enough. They heard about the March for Our Lives planned for Atlanta on March 24,
