By AL HACKLE
Jan 4, 10:02 p.m.
The parents of Michael Joseph Gatto, the 18-year-old who died after a violent encounter with a 20-year-old bouncer at Rude Rudy’s bar in Statesboro on Aug. 28, want Georgia’s laws changed to make places that sell alcoholic beverages more responsible.
“Michael’s Law,” as his father, Michael S. Gatto, and mother, Kathy Lee Gatto, envision it, would require that every Georgia business licensed to sell alcohol maintain insurance, including specialized insurance for problems resulting from the use of alcohol, as well as general liability insurance. The legislation would also raise the minimum age for bartenders and bouncers from 18 to 21 and require training for bartenders, bouncers, servers and the business owners who employ them.
Since their son’s death, the Gattos have followed closely the city of Statesboro’s analysis of its failures to enforce alcohol laws. But they also became aware, both through their own experience and from other families who reached out to them, that Georgia as a state requires little of bar owners.
“It is not just a Statesboro issue,” said the elder Michael Gatto. “It’s everywhere in Georgia, and it’s not just an underage drinking thing, although you know Statesboro obviously has a big issue with respect to that, but this really affects every single person in Georgia or people visiting Georgia who walk into an establishment.”
The Gattos, who live in Cumming in Forsyth County, talked by phone Wednesday about the legislation they would like to see enacted this year by the Georgia General Assembly, which convenes Jan. 12. A petition on change.org supporting the legislation — thus far a list of ideas and not a formal document — had drawn more than 4,600 signatures as of Saturday.
His parents also spoke briefly about the kind of young man Michael was and about the violence that claimed him.
Michael's Law 