On the recordSeptember 9, 2024
I rise today carrying the grief of all Georgians after a school shooting in the small town of Winder, GA, claimed the lives of two children and two educators just 5 days ago. I have been in the U.S. Senate a little over 3 years, and I have stood here three times to lament yet another tragic mass shooting in my State alone that has taken innocent lives. That is as unsurprising as it is tragic since we endure, in this country, about two mass shootings a day. So here we are again. I stand here not just as a Senator but as a father of two young children. I can tell you that as a dad, that time in the morning when you get your kids ready for school and you put them in the car and you drive them to school--that is precious time. All of us parents, when we drop our kids off--we drive them to school or walk them to school or walk them to the schoolbus--we want to know that we are going to pick them up just a few hours later. It is a ritual played out in small towns and big cities all across America, and it is something we take for granted. But increasingly in the United States of America, we cannot take for granted that when we drop our kids off in the morning, we will pick them up at 3 o'clock. That is every parents' nightmare regardless of your politics. Only weeks into the new school year, this nightmare again became a reality in Georgia.…
