The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-03)

A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022

BY TIM CRAIG

columbus, ga. — T oyia Tucker is

used to working around guns. For

three years, she was stationed at

an Air Force base in Alaska, where

she and other residents armed

themselves to scare away moose

and bears.

But it’s only since returning

home to Columbus that Tucker, a

city councilwoman, began to feel

like she’s living in the “wild, wild

West.”

Guns are everywhere, she said.

“Even my nearly 80-year-old

grandmother now feels like she

needs a weapon to feel safe,” said

Tucker, 44. “I feel like we have

gone back to the era of Butch

Cassidy, and I am not sure how we

get back to a regular normal.”

Tucker’s concerns, echoed by

many here, reflect a dangerous

cycle of gun violence in this racial-

ly diverse city. As violent crime

jumps in the state, residents are

arming themselves at record lev-

els, which is leading to more

crime and spurring new efforts by

state GOP lawmakers to loosen

permitting requirements for car-

rying concealed weapons.

It’s a trend that has echoed

across the country, as gun vio-

lence continues to rattle commu-

nities. In recent days, a gunman

shot and killed two dentists inside

their clinic in Tyler, Tex. A rider

aboard a city bus in Fort Lauder-

dale, Fla., shot four people, two of

them fatally. A dispute in a night-

life district in Norfolk left three

people injured and two dead. A

shooting at a car show in rural

Arkansas left one person dead

and more than two dozen wound-

ed.

Firearm purchases have soared

since the beginning of the pan-

demic, particularly among first-

time gun buyers. And state legis-

latures across the country are

moving to make it easier to carry a

gun in public.

In recent weeks, Republican

governors in Alabama and Ohio

have signed laws that nix permits

for concealed weapons; 21 other

states have similar measures in

place. At the urging of Georgia

Gov. Brian Kemp (R), similar mea-

sures have passed the Georgia

Senate and House of Representa-

tives; the governor is expected to

sign the final version of the legis-

lation in the coming days.

The legislation, a setback for

gun-control advocates in a state

that has been trending left, has

opened up sharp cultural divi-

sions here in Georgia.

“Why now? Why is this coming

up now?” asked Roy W. Minter Jr.,

the police chief in Savannah, Ga.,

who noted his city had more than

100 guns stolen out of unlocked

vehicles last year. “One of the

concerns I have [with the legisla-

tion] is more people leaving their

guns in cars, people leaving their

guns in other places, because now

there is more freedom to have that

gun with them.”

‘I’ve never seen it like this

before’

Columbus, a river city of

200,000 in southwestern Georgia,

offers a window into the nation’s

pandemic-era gun culture, and

why some local officials are wor-

ried about the solutions proposed

by state lawmakers.

Even as Georgia’s second-most

populated city has rebranded it-

self from a military town to a

destination for white-water raft-

ing, Columbus has been swept up

in a cycle of fear.

As homicides surged during

the coronavirus pandemic, Co-

lumbus residents purchased fire-

arms. Those weapons are now

increasingly being stolen from ve-

hicles and homes, leading to more

violence and more residents arm-

ing themselves.

“Over the last three or four

years, you had so many ingredi-

ents that went into a society that

tends to be a little bit more polar-

ized... a little less empathetic

and a little bit more anxious,” said

Columbus Mayor Skip Hender-

son, who added, “I think it’s going

to be a while for the swelling to go

down.”

Last year, there were 70 homi-

cides in this city, the highest tally

anyone can remember. Sixty-

three of those deaths were classi-

fied as murders, and the bulk of

those killings were related to do-

mestic disputes or shootings in-

volving two people who knew

each other.

Homicides have dipped so far

this year compared with 2021, but

Columbus residents remain rat-

tled by a spate of killings stem-

ming from robberies, stray bullets

or gunfights on city streets.

In recent months, a 71-year-old

grandmother died after she was

hit by a stray bullet while driving

her vehicle in a Columbus neigh-

borhood. The owner of a local gas

station was killed in middle of the

day in the parking lot of a bank,

even though the bank is sur-

rounded on two sides by a Colum-

bus police department precinct.

And in August, a 12-year-old,

Cortez Richardson, was shot and

killed in the back seat of an SUV.

Tiffany Richardson, 31, said she

had taken Cortez and her five

other children to a local steak-

house after she received her tax

refund, fulfilling a long-standing

promise to her children.

While Richardson was driving

her family home around 10 p.m.,

gunfire erupted between individ-

uals in two nearby vehicles.

“We didn’t notice my son got hit

until my second son turned on the

light and that is when we saw

blood on him,” Richardson said.

“It all happened so fast — the

bullet went through the back of

the truck and struck my son on

the left side of his back.”

Even police are not immune.

Last fall, one Muscogee County

deputy was chased and shot in the

forehead while driving to work in

a Columbus suburb. Last month,

three teenagers allegedly rolled

down the windows of their vehicle

and fired at another deputy dur-

ing a police pursuit, striking him

in his shoulder.

Officials attribute the rise in

crime to several factors. Greg

Countryman, the county’s sheriff,

said Columbus has seen a rapid

increase in the number of crimi-

nal gangs, which he blames for

much of the random gun violence.

“There are motorcycle gangs.

You have Haitian gangs. You have

Hispanic gangs. Asian gangs. The

Bloods and the Crips,” Country-

man said. “I’ve been in law en-

forcement for 31 years and I’ve

never seen it like this before.”

Henderson, the Columbus

mayor, said the stress of the pan-

demic, the nation’s divisive politi-

cal battles and younger residents’

embrace of “video game culture”

have also coalesced to drive more

residents to decide they “can’t

handle a conflict without firing a

weapon.”

“When you look at the situation

over the last couple of years, there

is no playbook for that,” added

Columbus Police Chief Freddie

Blackmon, who has been in law

enforcement for 36 years. “The

first step to resolve differences

should not be to pick up a firearm

and shoot someone.”

Although they concede it may

take time, Columbus leaders said

they hope to curtail the violence

by cracking down on gangs, ex-

panding support for low-income

families, and steering more re-

sources into mental health pro-

grams.

But here in the heart of the

Bible Belt, even the county sheriff

is starting to wonder whether

some of the nation’s troubles with

guns eclipse the ability of law

enforcement to effectively handle

them without spiritual interven-

tion.

“It was written [in the Bible] in

the end of times, there would be

an increase in lawlessness,” said

Countryman, who was elected in

2020 as the county’s first Black

sheriff. “We have to be prayerful

that we can trust God to get us out

of it.”

‘This is the new norm’

In interviews, many Columbus

residents said the rise in violent

crime, along with skepticism that

law enforcement officials can

keep them safe, motivated them

to get a gun. Officials said rumors

of lawlessness during the pan-

demic, along with fear sparked by

the protests that began after

George Floyd’s killing, have also

played a role.

Mirroring nationwide trends,

the county that includes Colum-

bus saw 5,410 applications for

concealed weapons permits last

year, compared with 3,264 appli-

cations in 2019, according to the

Muscogee County Probate Court.

The court processed nearly three

times more concealed weapons

permits last year than it did 15

years ago.

“I have a 2-year-old and a 3-

year-old, and no way am I going to

be stopped in the middle of the

highway by someone and not have

a way to defend myself,” John

Murray, a 28-year-old soldier at

nearby Fort Benning U.S. Army

base, said recently as he was pur-

chasing a 9mm semiautomatic

pistol at a local gun store.

David Warrick, the manager of

Alpine Pawn and Sporting Goods

gun store in Columbus, said busi-

ness has increased by at least 30

percent over the past two years.

The increase in business is being

driven by Black women, Warrick

said.

“It’s a lot of older church la-

dies,” Warrick said. “And the ma-

jority of people I deal with say

they feel victimized. They have

called police, and the police were

not there to help, or they know

someone who has been victimized

and they just don’t want it to

happen them.”

As Warrick spoke, 32-year-old

Starlett Harris walked into the

store looking to purchase a pistol.

Harris, who is Black and a sin-

gle mother, said she wants to

carry a concealed weapon, be-

cause the “youth do not respect

older people.” Harris, who works

as a hairstylist, said one of her

friends was recently robbed at a

stoplight while driving in Colum-

bus with her daughter.

“Today, the young are wicked,”

said Harris, who drives home

each night with her cash tips.

“They don’t care how old you are.

They don’t care if you are a wom-

an.”

Tucker, the Columbus council-

woman, said similar concerns

drove her Black mother and

grandmother to purchase fire-

arms.

Tucker said most of her extend-

ed family own weapons, which

she said would have been un-

thinkable during her childhood in

a historically Black, middle-class

Columbus neighborhood. “My

great-great-grandfather had

some type of gun from the war on

the wall, but that is the only time I

even saw any type of weapon,” she

said.

Recently, Tucker said, a cus-

tomer at her favorite nail salon

talked about having a gun in her

purse while getting her nails pol-

ished.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God. In the

nail salon?’ ” Tucker said. “But

that is becoming the norm, where

more and more people are carry-

ing.... This is the new norm, and I

would never imagine that we

would be in the wild, wild West in

2022.”

Sonny Patel, a cashier at a local

Chevron gas station, doubts that

gun sales will subside in Colum-

bus anytime soon. Patel’s boss,

Amit Patel, was the man killed in

December in front of a local bank.

“I moved to this town back in

2003 from New Jersey because it

was peaceful,” said Sonny Patel,

who is Indian American. “Now, I

feel like I made a big mistake.”

Although he noted gun owner-

ship is not common under his

Hindu faith, he said he and many

other local Indian Americans are

now looking to purchase fire-

arms.

“Everyone is trying to get some-

thing,” said Sonny Patel, 45. “If I

SEE GEORGIA ON A

As gun ownership rises, Ga. looks to loosen restrictions

ERIK S. LESSER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Gun rights advocates rally near the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta last month. In recent weeks, Republican governors in Alabama and Ohio have signed laws that nix permits for

concealed weapons; 21 other states have similar measures in place. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) i s expected to sign the final version of similar legislation in the coming days.

National trends dovetail

with increase in violent

crime amid the pandemic

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“I feel like we have gone

back to the era of Butch

Cassidy, and I am not

sure how we get back to

a regular normal.”

Toyia Tucker, city councilwoman

in Columbus, Ga.