Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms blamed the city's crime wave on state Republicans lifting COVID-19 restrictions too early and lax gun laws. In an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle on Friday, the mayor attributed a 50 percent increase in homicides, in part, to lax gun laws, teenagers having too much free time on their hands and the state lifting its COVID-19 restrictions back in April. 'Remember, in Georgia, we were opened up before the rest of the country, even before the CDC said that it was safe for us to open,' Bottoms explained to Ruhle.