Decatur legislators hope to work on gun safety, environmental issues in 2025

By Zoe Seiler, Decaturish

Decatur, GA — State legislators representing Decatur held a town hall on Wednesday, Dec. 4. They talked with constituents about the upcoming legislative session and hope to be able to tackle gun safety and environmental issues in 2025.

Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) noted that gun safety is a difficult issue to move forward in a Republican-controlled Legislature. But she and others plan to introduce bills related to gun safety.

“This year, based on the energy of a lot of people, and perhaps the energy of another school shooting in Georgia that resulted in deaths, there’s discussion,” Oliver said. “I find the discussion coming out of the House leadership vague, unspecific and not giving me a path, but I intend to be part of that discussion.

She is looking to introduce a gun storage tax credit and hopes to bring up the idea of gun owners having an insurance policy for weapons.

“What will be hard is what I have been promoting,” Oliver said. “I’ve sent out information, a draft of a bill that you’re free to own an AR-15 or assault weapon if you like, but you’ve got to have an insurance policy.”

Rep. Omari Crawford (D – Decatur) would also plan to introduce bills related to penalizing parents for allowing children to access guns and also requiring lock boxes in vehicles for weapons.

“Federal data shows that a lot of the crimes that are committed are from guns that are stolen from vehicles,” he said. “What the bill would essentially do is create a mandatory lock box requirement and if that weapon is taken, then you as the owner of that vehicle and gun would also be penalized.”

Oliver added she’d reintroduce a bill that if a gun is taken or stolen, the owner would be responsible if it wasn’t properly secured.

There was some movement in the legislature last year around safe gun storage. House Bill 161 would make it a crime to allow a gun to get into the hands of an unsupervised child. A Georgia House subcommittee heard testimony on a bill in 2023. A Senate study committee met this fall to look at gun safety and discuss the need to pass laws protecting young people.

In response to a constituent question, Oliver also said she’d be interested to see what bipartisan efforts could look like around environmental issues and climate change.

On the Senate side, Sen. Elena Parent (D – Senate District 42) said that Senate Democrats will be talking about the minimum wage, reproductive rights, and education funding, among other topics.

“We’re going to have some bills on more [housing] capacity and lowering housing costs, and Medicaid expansion, which we made some progress on last year,” Parent said.

A constituent also asked the legislators about their feelings on the upcoming changes to DeKalb County government, with three new commissioners and a new Chief Executive Officer. All three legislators said they support Lorraine Cochran Johnson.

“I felt that in [all of the DeKalb races] the best person won,” Parent said.

Cochran-Johnson is planning to hire four outside firms to evaluate the county operations. Oliver she said was glad to see that.

“I’ve supported Lorraine, and I’m excited about her opportunities. It’s a big change and there’s a lot of unknowns,” Oliver said.

Crawford added that Cochran-Johnson plans to hire a policy staffer to be a liaison between the county commission and the state legislators. He also said she is “a wonderful leader.”

“There were a lot of projects that she spearheaded that I worked on. I think she will be a great leader. There will be some changes because we have three new commissioners,” Crawford said.