Political Rewind: Highland Park shooting on Fourth of July; Abortion law in Georgia

Caption

A police officer reacts as he walks in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, Monday, July 4, 2022, where a mass shooting took place at a Highland Park Fourth of July parade.

Credit: (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The panel: 

Chuck Williams — Reporter, @chuckwilliams, WRBL-TV, Columbus

Kenya Hunter — Reporter, @KenyaTheHunter, Capital B Atlanta

Stephen Fowler — Political reporter, @stphnfwlr, GPB News

Tamar Hallerman — Senior reporter, @TamarHallerman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The breakdown: 

1. Highland Park, Ill., shooting at a parade over the Fourth of July weekend brings up questions about gun control. 

• NPR reports police took a person of interest into custody. 
• Five of the six killed in the attack were adults.
  • The victims stretch from ages 8 to 85. 
• Congress recently passed a new gun control law. 
  • Nonprofit organization Everytown ranks Illinois as one of the top 10 states in the country. 

2. Georgia state legislators fight subpoenas from the Fulton County district attorney. 

• The district attorney's office has an ongoing criminal investigation into the actions of former President Donald Trump and his allies following Georgia’s 2020 elections.
  •  Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former state Sen. William Ligon of Brunswick, both Republicans, filed a motion to fight the subpoenas.

3. Impact of Georgia's abortion law on communities of color. 

• Capital B's Kenya Hunter reports Black people make up 65% of Georgia's abortions. 
• Georgia does not have a trigger law that would have banned abortion after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
  • Right now, abortion is still legal in Georgia up until 20 weeks into a pregnancy. 
    • But future court rulings on House Bill 481 could change that. Stephen Fowler has more. 

4. Georgia elections are on track to become historically expensive. 

• Incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp looks for more national sources for fundraising. 
  • In 2018, Stacey Abrams outspent Kemp but fell short of the office by 55,000 votes.

Wednesday on Political Rewind: Terence Moore joins the panel to talk about his new book, The Real Hank Aaron.