The North Georgia mountains are now unfit for homeowners and unsafe both for residents and visitors.
The escalation of residential “target practicing” is ruining the beauty and quiet — stray bullets are finding their way into our yards, “target explosives” such as Tannerite are blowing up in our subdivisions and the hills are alive with the military rattle of assault rifles.
Neighborhoods in my part of southern Lumpkin County sound like a war zone every afternoon until dark. There’s no longer the occasional target shooter; it’s daily and goes on for hours weekdays, weekends. The shooter behind my property put a bullet in a tree beside my garden on Easter Sunday.
Since our politicians refuse to confront the problem, my goal is to organize residents and fight for a ban on all shooting in residential areas.
We are being subjected to the domestic terrorism of the militia era, the dystopia of angry and dangerous QAnon and Trump followers.
Either we take back our rights to live without fear of being shot in our own homes, or we concede that civility and safety no longer exist in Georgia.
Deborah Smith
Dahlonega
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