Several dead after mass shooting at Georgia high school

On September 4, a mass shooting occurred at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, local authorities reported.

At least four people were killed and at least nine were injured and hospitalized, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI also said a suspect in the shooting was alive and in custody.

In an initial statement, the Barrow County Sheriff's Office said authorities were dispatched to the school when officers from multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a reported shooting that morning.

The school is located about 50 miles outside of Atlanta. A spokesman for the city's Grady Health System told CNN that the hospital was treating at least one gunshot victim from the school who was brought there by helicopter.

Governor Brian Kemp (Republican of Georgia) wrote in a post on X that he had “deployed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School.” He also asked “all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state.”

A White House spokesman said President Joe Biden had been briefed by his homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall “about the tragic shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and his administration will continue to coordinate with federal, state and local authorities as we receive more information.”

In a statement, Biden said: “Jill and I mourn the deaths of those whose lives were cut short by further senseless gun violence and think of all the survivors whose lives are forever changed.”

“What should have been a joyous back-to-school celebration in Winder, Georgia, has now become another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart,” Biden said. “Students across the country are learning to duck and take cover instead of learning to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.” Biden said his administration is “coordinating closely with federal, state and local officials” and he is “grateful to the first responders who took the suspect into custody and prevented further deaths.” “Ending this gun violence epidemic is personal to me,” Biden said, noting that he signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which he called “the most significant gun safety legislation in decades,” as well as other executive actions against gun violence.

“We have made significant progress, but this crisis requires more,” he said, calling on Republicans and Democrats to work together and “pass sensible gun safety legislation” after decades of deadlock on the issue.

“We must once again ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, mandate secure storage of firearms, implement universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers,” Biden said. “These actions will not bring back the people tragically killed today, but they will help prevent more tragic gun violence from tearing families apart.”

At the time of the shooting, the high school had only been open for a month.

OSV News has reached out to the Archdiocese of Atlanta for comment.

Last year Catholic The bishops of the Atlanta Province signed a joint statement on June 27, 2023, calling on federal and state officials to take “decisive action” to implement meaningful legislation to combat the “plague of gun violence” at the national and local levels. The bishops said the “ready availability of firearms poses an imminent threat to the well-being of children” and urged lawmakers to prevent them from “falling into the hands of those who would commit acts of violence against children in schools, against their families, or against themselves.”