By Andy Brack | It’s an absolute miracle that none of the 18 people shot in two South Carolina Easter Weekend mass shootings died.
Unfortunately on March 31, a 12-year-old Greenville boy wasn’t as lucky after being killed in a school shooting. Another 12-year-old is suspected. In recent days, North Charleston police found a gun and more than 30 rounds of ammunition in a student’s bag at his high school.
If there ever were signs from heaven that the Palmetto State has a gun problem and needs to deal with it, these are the newest red flags. Our leaders need to deal with it instead of continuing to kick the can down the road.
“The shootings this weekend were raw jolt, yet at the same time not surprising,” said Meghan Alexander, founder of Arm-in-Arm , a bipartisan South Carolina advocacy group filled with gun owners who want to reduce gun violence. “There are many daily firearm incidents that do not make news.”
The group got started in 2015, shortly after the massacre of nine worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, including the church’s pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.
Since that deadly shooting, we’ve waited seven sessions for the Republican-led General Assembly to close a loophole to honor their slain colleague by making it harder for nuts to get guns. But they have dilly-dallied, failing year after year to take deadly gun violence seriously.
Rather than pass background checks, tougher laws against domestic violence or a law against hate crimes (we’re only one of two states without this), the General Assembly actually passed a measure that allows open carry of guns. Rather than curb the enthusiasm for guns, lawmakers boost their presence in public and throw gas on the fire.
“Over these last seven years since the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel, we’ve had ample opportunity to make South Carolina safer,” said Alexander, a Mount Pleasant resident. “But our legislature has not only NOT prioritized this, but has taken several steps to loosen existing gun safety measures. Any gun safety precautions are thwarted by our legislature.”
According to data compiled by Arm-in-Arm, gun violence is getting worse:
- Rising death rate. Firearm homicide deaths in South Carolina went up 136 percent in 22 years – from 223 deaths in 1999 to 528 in 2020.
- Ranked at top. Another list we don’t want to be on the top of: South Carolina has ranked fourth to eighth highest nationally in the rate of firearm homicide deaths since 2001.
- Doubled rate per capita. South Carolina jumped from 5.5 firearm homicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 10.9 per 100,000 people in 2000.
Bottom line: We’ve got a problem that’s getting worse and no one in the General Assembly is doing anything about it.
So what could state lawmakers do?
- Expand background checks for people who want to buy guns. As one comedian has joked, every gun owner knows someone that they don’t want to have a gun. Having a strong background check is a mechanism consistently supported by a majority of people to have a process to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Sure, some will buy guns on the black market, but not having a process is avoiding any solution.
- Close the Charleston loophole to make it tougher for bad guys to get guns.
- Join 48 other states in passing a hate crimes law.
- Make tougher penalties for anyone who violates existing gun laws.
- Boost financial support for hospital and community programs that seek to reduce gun violence.
In our permissive gun culture, guns aren’t going away. But the state legislature should take steps now to reduce violence by common-sense, popular actions that can keep more people safe. To do less is to insult responsible gun owners as well as those who want them to go away.
Andy Brack is publisher of the Charleston City Paper and editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!