By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | Strengthening gun-safety laws in gun-friendly South Carolina rarely happens quickly, if it happens at all. But that doesn’t mean lawmakers won’t see a slate of bills when they return to session next week.
Whether a state passes tougher gun legislation usually depends on the strength of the state’s gun safety laws, according to a 2017 report by Giffords Law Center.
“States that prioritize gun-violence prevention pass new laws to strengthen their efforts and states that prioritize gun-owner rights tend to weaken their gun-safety laws year after year,” said the center’s managing attorney Allison Anderman. The center was founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was shot in 2011. It advocates for gun-control legislation and tracks states’ legislative efforts concerning guns.
According to the center’s trends report, South Carolina typically balks at restricting guns while passing legislation that favors gun ownership, such as 2016’s concealed weapons permit reciprocity with Georgia and 2014’s law that allows permit holders to carry firearms in restaurants and bars.
Pro-gun states also tend to remain that way despite headline-grabbing mass shootings, Anderman said. For example, South Carolina lawmakers did not pass any gun control immediately after the 2015 Emanuel AME Church shooting that left nine parishioners dead in Charleston. It is yet to be seen whether lawmakers in Texas and Nevada, both pro-gun states, will do anything after their deadly mass shootings in 2017. Their legislative sessions are only held in odd-numbered years.
But some gun-safety legislation has managed to pass in states like South Carolina.
What South Carolina is doing about guns
Anderman, noted, however, that South Carolina has passed laws to improve safety.
In 2013, after a threatened shooting at a Charleston private school, the state enacted a law that required the reporting of some mental health information to the federal database used for firearm buyer background checks. In 2015 after news stories about South Carolina having the nation’s highest rate of domestic violence, the state also enacted a law that prohibited gun possession by certain domestic abusers.
“The mental health bill passed because of awareness after a specific incident, while the domestic violence bill was passed in large part because of public awareness of the serious nature of domestic violence in our state in the media,” Arm-in-Arm founder Meghan Alexander said in a statement to Statehouse Report. Arm-in-Arm was founded after the Emanuel AME shooting and aims to find a middle ground when it comes to gun-safety legislation.
Despite the 2013 and 2015 gun-control wins, South Carolina has continued to decrease gun control as an overall trend and is expected to continue to do so. Arm-in-Arm’s legislative committee called two bills being considered this session “alarmingly unsafe.” One would reciprocate all other states’ concealed carry licenses and another would allow permitless open and concealed carrying of firearms (also called “constitutional carry”) that allows gun owners to carry weapons without a permit. The group expects “fast movement” on these bills as the session opens next week.
Gerald Stoudemire, president of the state’s NRA affiliate, Gun Owners of South Carolina, said he supports the state’s renewed effort to expand reciprocity. On constitutional carry, gun permit teacher Stoudemire said: “I will not work against it but I will not put forth an effort to get it.”
Criminal connections
The Giffords Law Center issues report cards to states on gun-safety. South Carolina received an F in 2017. The center also lists the state among nine other states for the most gun-related deaths. The rate in South Carolina is 17.1 deaths per 100,000, the report said
“The relatively weak laws in South Carolina combined with high gun-ownership rate are the reason for South Carolina to have a high gun death rate relative to the country and the world,” Anderman said.
Gun advocates like Stoudemire say these statistics are skewed depending on how well states and countries report gun deaths.
Current South Carolina law does not require a background check prior to the transfer of a firearm between unlicensed individuals, regulate the transfer or possession of assault weapons, require firearm owners to obtain a license or register their firearms, impose a waiting period prior to purchase of a firearm, or limit the number of firearms that may be purchased at one time.
“Because of South Carolina’s weak laws it also has a significant high gun-export rate, so that means it’s a significant source of guns used in other states,” Anderman said. In 2009, South Carolina was the sixth highest supplier of guns used in crimes in other states, she added.
In the hopper in the S.C. General Assembly
Alexander said her group is watching several pieces of legislation that could “break through” the Senate. Those pieces include a waiting period and other bills deterring straw purchases.
South Carolina also currently does not require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms.
Last month, S.C. Reps. Robert Williams, D-Darlington, and Joe Jefferson, D-Pineville, prefiled a bill that would create a finable, misdemeanor offense for gun owners who do not report their weapons lost or stolen.
“It’s a very good deal,” Jefferson told Statehouse Report. “It goes a long way in … making people more accountable.”
According to federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data, it is estimated that more than 1 million guns are stolen every year, but only a fraction (173,000 in 2012) is reported.
“This is a policy that helps law enforcement recover guns and solve gun crimes,” Anderman said. “Those laws reduce illegal gun trafficking.”
The bill has been named Lizzy’s Law for the murder of an Oregon woman at the hands of a man who had stolen a gun 10 days prior. The gun was never reported stolen. The woman’s mother, Joanne Hafter, lives in Columbia. The bill was filed previously in 2015 by multiple Democratic representatives. It died in committee in 2016.
“Just because a bill didn’t pass two or three years ago doesn’t mean it won’t pass now,” Jefferson said.
Stoudemire said he supports reporting stolen weapons to law enforcement, but balked at imposing a fine.
“That’s ridiculous to attach a fine to someone who has already been a victim of a crime,” Stoudemire said.
Gun-control advocates in the state aren’t hopeful Jefferson’s bill will budge in the House.
States like California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Rhode Island have laws in place regarding fines for not reporting.
“It is not states like South Carolina,” Anderman said.
A matter of politics
Anderman said, however, that gun control is getting more public attention, especially after Las Vegas’ 2017 tragedy, the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in United States history. Prior to the Las Vegas shooting, Nevada voters had already passed universal background checks for gun buyers.
“The tide is turning toward people making gun-violence prevention a voting issue,” Anderman said.
Big upsets aren’t expected in South Carolina in the House’s election year. And guns may not be at the top of voters’ minds as ratepayers bristle over $9 billion in debt from two utilities’ gamble on nuclear stations, lawmakers grapple with an ethics probe, and the state faces a worsening teacher shortage.
But Jefferson, a Democrat, said gun issues in election years “always help” his side of the aisle. Stoudemire was more cynical. He said this is the year Democrats take pro-gun stances to sway more conservative constituents (or take more anti-gun stances to keep their seats).
“I hope it’s going to be a positive session for law-abiding gun owners and not so positive for the others. The criminals don’t need our help,” Stoudemire said. He added that he expected any anti-gun legislation “to go nowhere.”
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