Editorial: As shootings continue, we need to focus on the issues

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Note: While station editorials are not routinely done at Atlanta News First, VP/GM Erik Schrader has chosen to record one this week. Below is the transcript of the editorial:

All these years, and we’re still talking about it. Still just talking about it.

I’m Erik Schrader, the Vice President and General Manager at WANF & WPCH, and you don’t see me do editorials very often – in fact, this is the first I’ve done since coming to Atlanta back in 2021. It’s been almost 24 years since Columbine, when 13 victims died. Almost 16 years since Virginia Tech, when 32 students and faculty members died. And it’s been 10 years since Sandy Hook, when 26 victims – including 20 first graders died.

I really thought after that we’d come together as a country and take steps to stop this from repeatedly happening, but we didn’t. Nothing significant changed. Nothing to prevent 17 people dying in Parkland, Florida 5 years ago or 21 kids and teachers in Texas last year, and nothing to prevent what happened in Nashville days ago. Trying to decide how to stop it is polarizing. No one seems to agree, and too many people are digging in.

We didn’t get in this situation as a country – as an outlier across the world – for any one reason, and no one thing is going to help us stop the madness. But we need it to be a focus. Georgia’s leaders, we need your help. Governor Kemp, we need your help. Senators Ossoff and Warnock, we need your help. Our other federal and state leaders, we need your help too. We can all agree this needs to stop. No one wants this to keep happening. Almost no one—except the people that do these things. We have to stop them. All of us. We have to stop them.

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