New bill would give stiffer penalties for those caught swatting

ATLANTA — There are two measures that will make Georgia safer and make people safer in their homes and neighborhoods.

Duluth Republican Matt Reeves was all smiles minutes after the Georgia House overwhelmingly passed a measure that would make swatting a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison for a third offense.

It also gave drive-by shootings a clearer definition in Georgia law, making that crime easier to prosecute.

“I think that these two issues, people are aware of them. They’re disturbed that they’re going on in Georgia, and the Georgia House fought back today,” Reeves said.

No one was more disturbed than some Georgia lawmakers.

Someone made a fake 911 call sending the SWAT team to Marietta republican Kay Kirkpatrick’s home the day after Christmas.

“I didn’t think until afterward that there were a lot of ways that could’ve gone wrong,” Kirkpatrick said.

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She said she felt it was politically motivated but didn’t achieve its intent.

“It is so inappropriate, and it doesn’t accomplish anybody’s goal, whatever the goal is. So I’m not even sure what would motivate somebody to do something like that that could potentially result in a loss of life,” Kirkpatrick said.

The bill makes swatting a felony punishable for up to 10 years for a first offense, 15 for a third.

“This bill says that in Georgia, we want to have public safety. We don’t want to have SWAT teams called to people’s homes unnecessarily, and that we want to protect against drive-by shootings who many of them are drug dealers to gang members,” Reeves said.

The bill already passed the Senate, but they changed it to add the part about drive-by shootings. It has to go back to the Senate for approval.

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