From the hard-to-believe department: There are more deaths from guns in South Carolina (population 5.2 million) than in the entire state of New York (19.8 million residents). In 2021, for example, South Carolina had the nation’s 11th highest firearm mortality rate (1,136 deaths) compared to New York (1,078 deaths), which had the nation’s fourth lowest rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yes, all of this shooting has become an out-of-control disease. Lawmakers in South Carolina need to emulate places like Massachusetts, Hawaii, New York and New Jersey to create tougher gun laws so there are fewer deaths and illegal guns on the streets. It just doesn’t need to be so easy to get guns.
Note: The title of this editorial is not “get rid of guns.” It calls for getting them under control. Guns are legal in South Carolina and will remain so. But if we don’t treat the disease, we’ll have more shootings and deaths.
Like the one in Columbia over the weekend when somebody sprayed bullets at an after-prom flash party. Eleven people were hurt, including nine who were shot. Thank goodness no one died.
Or last month on Isle of Palms when somebody shot and wounded five people on Isle of Palms as students partied during a senior skip day. Or the Sunday in October when 10 people — 10 — died in three shootings in Spartanburg, Richland and Horry counties. Or on Easter weekend last year when 18 people were shot in two South Carolina mass shootings. Fortunately, no one died.
All of this needless shooting and death has got to stop.
A March spotlight on gun violence by the City Paper showed there was an average of three shootings per day in Charleston County in November 2022. And while enhanced community policing here has led shootings and gun deaths to drop slightly recently, it is not acceptable in a civilized county for there to be 167 shootings in 2022 in Charleston (a 23% drop over 2020) or 377 incidents of aggravated assaults with firearms in North Charleston in 2022 (a 24.8% drop from 2021).
More needs to be done:
• Local law enforcement must expand efforts to get dangerous guns and the criminals who flaunt them off the streets.
• State lawmakers need to stop flirting with permitless carry, which will make streets more dangerous. They need tougher registration laws. And they need to enact bond reform to stop a revolving door of violence.
• Citizens need to do a better job by locking cars so it’s not easy to steal guns. Or better: Don’t keep guns in cars at all. Additionally, they need to get more education on how to handle guns and more training at ranges to know how to use them safely.
In an effort to provide more education to everyone, the City Paper last week began a weekly Gun Violence Counter, which will list the number of shootings and gun deaths reported by local law enforcement and in media statewide. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather an indicator of the problem South Carolina has with guns.
For the week ending May 2, for example, six people died from gun violence in South Carolina and 21 others were shot. The previous week: five deaths and seven others shot.
Wake up, South Carolina. Get gun violence under control.
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