State senate challenger raffles trigger locks
Democrat Evan Ross and incumbent Republican Chuck Hufstetler share views on gun regulation in the run-up to the Nov. 6 election.
A Democratic candidate for the Georgia Senate is raffling off 200 gun locks as part of his fundraising campaign.
That’s gun locks, not guns. “Part of it is a contrast to (Republican gubernatorial candidates) Michael Williams or Brian Kemp giving away bump stocks,” Evan Ross said with a laugh.
“But, look, I’m a gun owner, I have a concealedcarry permit, I support the Second Amendment,” he added. “I just want to emphasize that Northwest Georgia gun owners are very responsible people and they want to be safe.”
Ross — a 49-year-old husband and father who manages deliveries for two local organic farms — is challenging incumbent Republican Chuck Hufstetler for the District 52 seat. The district covers all of Floyd and parts of Chattooga, Gordon and Bartow counties.
Gun rights became a priority issue in the Republican primary, where Kemp won the party’s nomination to face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams for the governorship.
A controversial campaign ad in which Kemp jokingly points a shotgun toward a teen boy who wants to date his daughter sparked outrage from detractors and calls to
“get over it” from his campaign. Williams, who lost decidedly, gave away bump stock devices used to make semi-automatics fire as continuously as a machine gun.
Hufstetler, a former Floyd County commissioner who now chairs the Senate Finance Committee, is less dramatic. In fact, he and Ross appear to share similar commonsense stances.
“There’s nothing wrong with raffling off trigger locks as a political gimmick,” Hufstetler shrugged. “But I don’t think it’s as effective as people locking up their guns separately.”
Gun locks aren’t going to stop a planned school shooting, he said, then rattled off statistics to support his contention that gun restrictions don’t have much effect on crime in the United States. He also said mass-shooters typically look for “soft targets,” gun-free zones.
“We need to enforce existing laws and put an increased focus on mental health,” Hufstetler said. “We also need to continue to lift people out of poverty. I think that would have more of an effect.”
Ross, who’s also a fount of statistics, said better enforcement of gun laws already on the books is the No. 1 way to halt shootings.
“Most of the people who go on to murder their spouse with a firearm had a previous conviction for domestic abuse,” Ross said. “Yet you have to surrender your guns if you’re a convicted felon; it’s the law. These are preventable deaths.”
He also called for improved mental health services, and a study to determine why people with a known potential for violence slip through the cracks.
“We should have a system. It could be that there is one and we’re talking about overworked law enforcement, but we need to find the root problem and address it,” he said. “Almost everything about my campaign is trying to find the simplest solution for important problems.”
Ross said he plans to hold gun lock raffles in each of the district’s four counties at rallies before the Nov. 6 general election. He’ll draw from names of people who have signed up on his campaign website. The only requirement is that they live in the district and are registered voters.
“And if you’re not registered to vote, we’ll be happy to help you do that. It doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is,” he said.