By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 23, 2023 | People around Atlanta, and really our whole country, are perplexed about what communities can do to prevent more deaths in shootings. Shootings take place hither and yon all around our country. We have seen the shootings of downtown Atlanta expand to the suburbs, including Gwinnett County.
Unfortunately, our nation is reaping the drawbacks of our Western expansion, where a gun was often needed. This ownership of weapons has escalated, developed as our nation’s conquered the frontiers, and more recently by right-wing militia groups, and in the last century by the continued ballyhooing of the National Rifle Association.
It’s to the point that it is virtually impossible to carry on a sensible and moderated conversation about guns with many elements of society.
What our country needs is some advanced thinking about how to tackle the gun problem. Without it, we will continue to read reports of gunfire bringing to death more and more people, often innocent bystanders. We need to do something about this major problem.
While random shootings are taking place all around, a lot of the shootings have common elements. They sometimes occur late in the night, often after midnight, and many times at what you can call “night spots,” whether outright clubs, open-late restaurants or at gathering places for people, often in gangs.
So if people are coming together at regular spots, why not focus on those spots? We specifically would point out that many of these locations include establishments serving alcoholic beverages, and that these locations are and can be regulated by local laws.
Unfortunately, not enough governments spend enough time regulating these alcohol-serving establishments. That’s an area that might prove essential in tackling the shooting problem.
Years ago, GwinnettForum began promoting closing these spots at an earlier hour.
The way the Gwinnett code wording now reads in Gwinnett County, “Last Call” is at 1:45 a.m. at places serving alcohol. These establishments must halt serving beverages by 1:55 a.m. and there must not be any alcohol on any table by 2:50 a.m. This applies six days a week. On Sundays, bars must stop serving beverages at midnight.
That might make you think that these places close at 3 a.m. during the week. That is not necessarily so. Some bars serving alcohol keep their doors open well after 3 a.m. They may not be officially allowed to serve alcoholic beverages, but the rules say nothing about food or when they must close.
And it is in staying open later that people may continue to congregate in the establishments. It is during this time where significant problems can erupt, and people get injured in fights that can turn into gunplay.
Therefore we formally suggest to the Gwinnett County Commission that they consider changing the hours for serving beverages. Make the “last call” one hour earlier, at 12:55 a.m. , and require that no alcoholic beverages can remain on tables after 1:55 a.m. With this, GwinnettForum has changed the wording of the List of Continuing Objectives to reflect the earlier closing times.
Yes, this is a small step. But if it can reduce the number of shootings in Gwinnett County, it will be a welcomed change.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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