Guns, not cars, now kill more Georgians

At the moment 2010 became 2011, Sergio Martinez stepped into his kitchen. Across the street, Ervin Turner Sr. raised his handgun to welcome the new year. In her living room, Martinez’s niece Marlen felt a curtain flutter, as if a sudden wind had entered the house.

The sound of gunfire. Breaking glass. A scream. And Georgia’s first casualty of gun violence in 2011. All in .13 seconds, three times faster than the blink of an eye.

From the time Sergio Martinez died in Lilburn more than four years ago, Georgians have been more likely to be killed in shootings than in car crashes, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.