Opinion: Enough is enough.

My heart breaks for Winder.

I try to avoid getting too overtly political in the pieces that I share with you all, but I unfortunately cannot do so in discussing Wednesday’s tragedy in Barrow County.

First off, words alone are not enough to express how broken my heart is for our friends in Winder. It’s one thing to see these types of tragedies taking place in different states. But it’s another when it hits close to home.

I’m sure that the roughly 2,000 students and faculty at Apalachee High School never imagined that a normal school day would become the worst day of their lives. An entire community has been shattered and four beautiful families were left with empty chairs at the dinner table after school on Wednesday.

And everyone continues to ask the same question: Why?

We know that a suspect is now in custody and I am sure investigators will try to provide us with the answers we are all looking for in the days and weeks to come. For now, we as a state must not only wrap our arms around Winder, but also have a serious discussion about what needs to be done to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the guns. No matter what you may think of your right (or lack thereof) to bear arms, our forefathers did not intend for a 14-year-old to tear an entire community apart when they first coined that phrase. No teenager should have access to a weapon of any kind. Period.

Politicians of all stripes have been offering their condolences to those impacted by Wednesday’s shooting. But at what point will those condolences be followed up with action?

We turn to our elected officials to keep us safe during times like this. Just one school shooting is one too many, and we are failing our next generation of leaders if we continue doing little to nothing to protect them in the only place they are supposed to feel safe outside of their homes.

Some lawmakers at both the state and federal levels are quick to shield students from “harmful” concepts being taught in the name of “protecting our kids.” But how can any legislator continue to watch cell phone videos of students being evacuated from their classroom and not feel any sense of urgency to act?

Personally, I can’t say that I’m optimistic that much will be done in the near future. We are of course in the middle of an election year, which means politicians will be spending the next two months echoing their party’s core values on gun safety to try to energize their supporters.

And let’s face it: we live in a state that has made it easier to access firearms, not harder. Just this year, our state legislature approved a bill that not only offers tax incentives to gun owners, but loosens state regulations over firearm purchases.

In 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill allowing handguns to be carried in public with no licenses, known by supporters as “constitutional carry.”

Shootings like these have become all too common in this state and across the country and we have elected leaders who are doing the exact opposite of what is needed to stop them.

How many more lives need to be lost and how many more families and communities need to be senselessly ripped apart before enough is enough?