The scenes outside of the high school were chaotic and heartbreaking. Dozens, maybe hundreds of emergency vehicles swarmed the scene — sheriff’s deputies, EMTs, firefighters and even county game wardens responded. With traffic blocked by police more than a mile away from the school, panicked parents and grandparents simply parked their cars on the side of the road and started walking or running to reach their children instead.

The stories were as horrific as they were inevitable. Without more being done to prevent school shootings in Georgia and beyond, it feels like we’re just waiting for the next one to happen and praying it’s not where we live.

We don’t truly know whether this terrible new normal for our kids is a result of the increasingly lax gun laws that our leaders keep passing or a lack of security in schools. Is it because of the rising levels of anxiety in teens or a failure to keep guns away from people having a serious mental health crisis? Is it all of those things together? Maybe. But lawmakers in the state are not looking deeper to find out.

That’s especially perplexing because it often seems like there is no issue too large or too small for the Georgia General Assembly to study and debate. If a topic is complex, or lawmakers don’t know exactly what a bill or law should look like, they often create a study committee to gather more information. This year, House study committees are reviewing credit card fees and excise taxes, consumer protections in the tree safety industry, and changes to laws for navigable streams.

But since I have been covering the Legislature, there has never been a study committee to look at how to comprehensively address school shootings and, if I can make an easy prediction, at this rate there never will be.

That’s because a study committee would surely tell GOP leaders something they don’t want to hear — that along with the millions of dollars they already spent to upgrade security at schools and the requirements they put in place for active shooter drills for all students (including kindergartners), the only way to prevent school shootings is to also consider gun restrictions in some form or fashion.

Lawmakers have proved themselves acutely aware of other potential harms to children in schools and have been ready to act accordingly.

When conservatives feared that some white children could be made to feel sad or guilty depending on how a teacher presented a topic such as slavery, the House and Senate passed a bill that detailed which topics teachers could introduce and even specified the kinds of questions they were allowed to answer.

When a transgender college student in Pennsylvania swam in a women’s swim meet, GOP lawmakers moved to ban all transgender kids from participating on Georgia school teams different from their gender at birth. Last week, a new Senate study committee held a public hearing to find out what more should be done on that issue.

But when four people were killed in a Barrow County school on Wednesday by a boy from their own community, the most leaders could offer were thoughts and prayers.

Speaking for myself, I am thinking and praying deeply for the children and families affected. I am also profoundly grateful to the school resource officer who stopped the shooter and certainly prevented more carnage in the process.

But I know we would not need so many thoughts and prayers if lawmakers would take action and do more to save our students’ lives, no matter the politics.

As of now, they’re just failing them, one school shooting at a time.

Patricia Murphy is an opinion columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That’s a more forgiving definition than the one former CNN anchor Don Lemon gave for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Hayley when he declared earlier this year that the GOP presidential candidate is past her prime.

“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” he said with a shrug during a show in February, telling his female anchors to ask Google to confirm what he said. “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40 … it’s just like ‘prime,’ look it up.”

So by Lemon’s Google-it definition, he, former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and NBC Universal’s former CEO Jeff Shell are all past their primes, too, after a shocking 24 hours in television news that saw the three former stars unceremoniously fired from their jobs.

The triple dumping was head spinning in its speed, but the biggest question in all three cases was, what the heck took so long?

The 57-year-old Lemon said in a statement: ‘It is clear that there are some larger issues at play. With that said, I want to thank my colleagues and the many teams I have worked with for an incredible run.”

One “larger issue” could be that Lemon’s ratings were in the tank. It turns out that telling more than half of the morning audience that they no longer have potential makes them no longer want to watch your show.

From what we know of Carlson’s departure so far, his offenses were in every way more serious. But the fact that he was the highest-rated show, not just on Fox, but on all of cable news, made his departure downright shocking.

His demise seems to be rooted in the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the company of airing debunked election fraud conspiracies about the voting machine company, even knowing the allegations were not true.

Carlson’s private texts showed him trashing his bosses, including Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch. “We worked really hard to build what we have. Those (expletives) are destroying our credibility. It enrages me,” he wrote after Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night.

The Los Angeles Times also reported that Murdoch was deeply troubled Sunday night by a “60 Minutes” report that featured Ray Epps, a former Marine who marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Epps gave an interview from the camper van where he now lives with his wife “somewhere in the Rocky Mountains” after Carlson repeatedly accused Epps of being an FBI plant and forced him into hiding.

For all the money Carlson brought in for Fox as the star of the highest-rated show on cable news, he seemed to be on the verge of costing them that much and more. And that, in television, is the ultimate offense.

The third ouster this week was the highest ranking, but least headline-grabbing, with NBCUniversal abruptly firing CEO Jeff Shell on Sunday. That same day, Shell released a statement that he had “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret” and the company said it was being sued for harassment by a CNBC correspondent.

One immediate consequence of all this turmoil is that two of the loudest voices of the Trump era have vanished from the airwaves almost instantly. Carlson was one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders and influences, while Lemon packed a punch in prime time when hitting back at Trump was both the network’s DNA and business plan.

Another takeaway from the triple ouster is that there are actually consequences for bad behavior — defamation, harassment, and insulting your viewers — even for powerful men in American media, and especially if you’re going to cost the company more than you’re bringing it.

It’s hard to see their potential after such public falls from grace. And without potential, by Google’s own definition, Carlson, Lemon, Shell, and the era of say anything, do anything, no-consequences journalism, may finally be past their prime.

Patricia Murphy is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The network shouldn’t give her a platform, critics said. They’d only be elevating her.

But as anyone who has been paying attention to Greene for the last three years knows, Greene already has a platform called the Internet. And she’s already been elevated, not by Leslie Stahl and “60 Minutes,” but by former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and the entire Republican establishment.

And that’s not to mention Greene’s own voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, who reelected her in 2022 with more than 65% of the vote.

With high-profile spots on congressional committees and the crucial understanding that the greatest commodity in politics is loyalty, Greene has leveraged her relationships with McCarthy and Trump to rocket from, in Stahl’s words, the fringe to the front row.

More accurately, Greene has brought the fringe to the front row. Along with her committee assignments, she was also a top donor to the National Republican Campaign Committee in the 2022 cycle. And she speaks frequently in Georgia, everywhere from local GOP events to the floor of the state Senate.

What she says is deeply offensive to Democrats and often untrue. But the influence she has is undeniable — and growing. Watch Greene carefully, and you won’t see a future running mate for Trump, you’ll see a future Trump.

On Tuesday, Greene and fabulist Congressman George Santos were the only two members of Congress on hand in New York to stand up for Trump as he became the first former president ever to be charged with a crime, or in this case, 34 crimes. By going to New York, she continued to cement her role as both the chief cheerleader for, and heir apparent to, the former president.

You’ve heard time and again that “Trumpism” didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end with him, either. The former president’s arraignment Tuesday was just the latest reminder that whether through jail, defeat, or plain old age, Trump won’t be around to fuel Trumpism forever.

What’s becoming more and more clear is that the most likely vessel for its second life is MTG. When she appears at Trump rallies to speak for him, the cheers for her are second only to his. Her ability to raise cash keeps her near the top of the Washington fundraising ranks.

The dynamics that gave rise to anger in middle America in some ways have only intensified as social media has driven divisions deeper. Greene has ridden that wave and heightened it. She is now only figure on the right who matches Trump’s combination of ignorance, grievance, and pizzazz. Unless the fever breaks, Marjorie Taylor Greene is here to stay.

Moments after her New York park appearance, Greene was doing a live interview with Brian Glenn for Right Side Broadcasting from the backseat of an SUV driving through lower Manhattan.

She looked directly into the camera and declared that by being arrested, Trump was joining some of the most “incredible people in history.”

“Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus! Jesus was arrested and murdered,” she said. “I’ll always support (Trump). He’s done nothing wrong.”

In reality, a judge and jury will decide if Trump did anything wrong, in New York and possibly here in Georgia. And the commonalities between Mandela, Trump and Jesus ended when they stopped being in the same sentence of a Greene media hit.

But while the cameras were still rolling and after the car came to a stop, the grimaces on Glenn’s and Greene’s faces disappeared were replaced by wide smiles. By the end of the day, the former president had been indicted on 34 felony counts in connection with three hush-money deals ahead of his 2016 presidential election.

Before she left New York, Greene tweeted out a link to the “Official Trump Mugshot t-shirt.” It featured a mock-up of a Trump police booking photo on it, since a real mugshot never happened. Proceeds from the $36 shirts will go, where else, to Trump for President 2024.

Patricia Murphy is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

When Joe Biden came to Georgia to mark his 100th day in office, he made it clear that his destination was no accident.

Without the state’s two new U.S. senators to give Democrats control of the upper chamber, Biden likely would not have gotten any portion of his agenda passed through Congress by now.

Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, along with all six Democrats in the Georgia House delegation, have been reliable votes for the Biden agenda, especially the $1.9 trillion American Recovery Act COVID relief package.

The popular package not only made COVID vaccinations free and extended the PPP loan program through May, but it will also send more than $12 billion to Georgia governments and schools to recover from the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

Between votes for non-controversial nominees and emergency spending, it’s been a relatively light lift to be a Biden Democrat so far. But Biden is about to raise the bar on all Democrats, especially those in battleground states.

That’s because when the president laid out the “Jobs and Family” phase of his agenda, he said he would pay for the $4 trillion programs, including tax cuts for middle-and-low income families, by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Specifically, the president would raise $1.5 trillion by taking the top tax bracket for those making over $400,000 from 37% to 39.6%. He is also calling for an increase the top capital gains tax rate from 20% to 39.6% for people who make more than $1 million annually.

The details can make your eyes glaze over, but the idea of any tax increase can be a dicey political proposition.

On the one hand, you’ve got to give Biden credit for admitting that proposals cost money and making an effort to avoid increasing the deficit with his plans.

When Donald Trump slashed corporate taxes, increased defense spending, and then passed trillions of dollars in emergency COVID relief, he made no attempt to shield the budget from the debt burden it would result in. In his four years in office, Trump increased the debt by $7.8 trillion.

Biden was also forthright during his presidential campaign about his plans to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans to finance his proposals for middle-class Americans.

In an interview with ABC News in August, Biden specifically said, “I will raise taxes for anybody making over $400,000.”

And just as he said Wednesday night, Biden also said in August, “Everybody should pay their fair share.”

But supporting Biden’s plans could play into the hands of Republicans, who have long relied on gloomy warnings about massive Democratic tax increases to attack Democrats.

They were certainly at the heart of Republicans’ rhetoric in 2020 when they accused Warnock, Ossoff and Biden alike of being tax-increasing radical socialists. Georgia voters rejected those arguments when they put Biden and the new senators in office.

Ossoff and Warnock were not as specific as Biden during their campaigns about which tax increases they would vote for.

But Ossoff wrote in a policy statement that he would support policies that help Georgia’s families make and save more money, including “lower taxes for all but the wealthiest Americans.”

And during a debate with Kelly Loeffler in October, the AJC’s Greg Bluestein asked Warnock which tax policies were needed due to the pandemic.

“What I support is that we ought to give middle-class families and poor families a break right about now,” Warnock said.

On the day after Biden’s speech, as Georgia prepared to welcome the president to town, I didn’t get any more clarity when I asked both senators’ offices and other Georgia Democrats in the delegation whether they will support Biden’s tax hikes.

Although all have been quick to support Biden on his other ideas, none answered the AJC’s request for comment on increasing taxes to pay for the Jobs and Family plan.

The one exception was Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia’s 7th District. The former public policy and finance professor said that Biden’s ideas for infrastructure and education-related measures addressed some important needs, but she’s worried about the price tag.

“I’ll be putting on my green eyeshades and sharpening my pencil, looking at the spending,” she said, adding that infrastructure improvements have traditionally been funded through user fees and not tax hikes.

Asked if she opposed a specific funding mechanism, Bordeaux said, “I’m not taking anything off the table.”

The congresswoman recently joined the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of moderate Democrats that her office described as “dedicated to pursuing fiscally-responsible policies,” among other priorities.

She was also one of the few bright spots for Democrats in 2020 when she flipped the 7th District seat in her U.S. House contest.

Bordeaux is likely to face a tough re-election bid in 2022, made more complicated by the possibility that the Republican-controlled Legislature could redraw her well-educated, suburban district to make it easier for a conservative candidate to win.

She’s not the only one. Rep. Lucy McBath in the neighboring 6th District could also face a different district, a tough Republican, or both next year. And although Warnock hasn’t yet drawn a big-name candidate into his reelection contest, he knows he’ll have a fight on his hands in the newly designated battleground of Georgia.

Will a vote to increase taxes on the wealthiest Georgians make victory easier or harder for each of them?

It’s a question for each Georgia Democrat and for Biden, too. Because his success depends on their success.

That’s why the president came to Georgia and why the Georgia delegation’s answer to his tax plan will be the answer for the country as well.

Patricia Murphy writes about politics for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kemp has previously declined Trump’s demands to call a special legislative session to appoint Republican electors to cast their votes for Trump, instead of the Democratic electors Kemp certified after the Georgia vote count and an audit showed that president-elect Joe Biden won Georgia by roughly 12,000 votes.

In a tweet Saturday, Kemp disclosed his conversation with the president, adding that he would like to see an audit of signatures associated with absentee ballots cast during the November election. Trump tweeted earlier in the day that Kemp is refusing a verification of absentee signatures, which is not true.

Also on Saturday, Kemp’s office said the governor won’t appear at Trump’s rally in Valdosta following the death of a young aide he considered a member of his family.

The governor’s office said the Republican would not attend the event as he mourns the death of Harrison Deal, an aide to U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler who the governor said was the “Kemp son and brother we never had.” Deal, 20, died in a traffic accident in Savannah on Friday.

Kemp’s appearance at the rally for U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler was in doubt before the tragedy. The Republican has come under increasing attack from Trump, who has said he was “ashamed” to have endorsed him in 2018 and criticized him for refusing to obstruct the certification of Georgia’s election results.

The governor has refrained from swiping back at Trump, saying he shares the president’s “frustration” at the outcome. But he’s repeatedly noted that Georgia law blocks him from “interfering” with the election.

Instead, Kemp has urged Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to take additional steps to verify absentee ballot signatures — a measure elections officials say is unnecessary — and authorized Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents to investigate potential voter fraud cases.

A senior Republican official said that in Kemp and Trump’s Saturday conversation, the president offered his condolences for Deal’s death.

Donald Trump is planning to announce that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is his choice for his vice presidential running mate, according to a Republican with direct knowledge of the decision.

As Trump narrowed in on his choice of Pence, the two men spent time at both Trump’s golf resort in New Jersey in early July and at the Indiana governor’s mansion this week.

In addition to testing the men’s chemistry together, Trump was reportedly impressed with Pence’s calm demeanor, his experience on Capitol Hill and as a governor, and Pence’s potential to assist Trump in governing, should the ticket win in November.

The announcement will be made at an event at Trump Tower at 11 a.m. Friday morning.