Gun violence causes shift in presidential campaigns after Apalachee High School shooting

WASHINGTON — This week’s school shooting in Barrow County is changing the presidential campaign.

Both sides had focused more heavily on other issues, outside of gun safety before this week.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning was in Washington, breaking down how the shooting at Apalachee High School is impacting the race for the White House between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Just under two months until the November election, the campaigns for both Trump and Harris are shifting focus, atl east for now.

This week’s deadly school shooting in Barrow County, part of battleground state Georgia, is causing both campaigns to adjust.

“It’s just outrageous that every day in our country, the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their children will come home alive,” Harris said.

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Before Wednesday’s shooting, both candidates for president had focused more on the economy, abortion rights or restrictions and immigration, which are still key issues.

However, the tragedy in Barrow County is getting the attention of both campaigns after 14-year-old Colt Gray was accused of shooting and killing four people and wounding nine others.

On Truth Social, owned by the former president, Trump said his heart was with the victims and called the teen shooting suspect a “sick and deranged monster.”

Trump himself was the target of a recent shooting while campaigning outside of Pittsburgh, Penn. over the summer.

Both vice presidential nominees, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Gov. of Minnesota Tim Walz, addressed the shooting in Georgia during campaign rallies this week.

“Strict gun laws is not the thing that is going to solve this problem,” Vance said. “I don’t like that this is a fact of life, but if you’re a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets.”

Walz, instead came out in support of restrictions.

“They spend their time banning books instead of banning assault weapons. That is crap,” Walz said.

Harris and Trump are expected to face off in their first and only scheduled presidential debate on Tuesday, where Wednesday’s school shooting is likely to come up.

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