When local elected officials met with Columbia County lawmakers before the start of this year’s legislative session, they asked members of the delegation to be wary of attempts to change the rules on the Transportation Improvement Act.

Now it’s obvious they were right to be worried.

Senate Bill 73, filed by Republican state Sen. John Albers of Roswell, carries the misleading name “Anti T-SPLOST Penalty Act.” What the bill actually would do is doubly penalize the three districts around Georgia whose voters agreed to raise their sales tax to fund transportation projects.

In the wake of high-profile shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Sandy Hook, Conn., many people have called for more gun-control laws, when what we really need is tougher punishment for anyone violating the laws we already have.

That’s why the weak sentence given to Johndrick Barnes this past week is a failed opportunity.

If there were any justice in the world, Grovetown Middle School would have to call the cops Monday afternoon.

Not for anything bad; exactly the opposite. They’d need the police to direct traffic for all the people eagerly flooding the campus to watch the Columbia County Spelling Bee.

It won’t happen, but it would be great.

Politicians generally believe they must be seen as “doing something” in reaction to any given crisis, no matter whether that “something” is likely to be effective or not.

The Obama administration this past week decided to “do something” about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary by, among other things, calling for sweeping gun bans and restrictions. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal swung the pendulum in the other direction, promising to sign legislation to strap sidearms on school personnel.

Are there any cooler heads in elected office capable of reining in this runaway nonsense?