There’s still time for the South Carolina General Assembly to do the right things on gun violence. After all, state lawmakers have had 10 years. But again this year, with the legislative session set to expire May 8, time is running out.
To memorialize the brutal deaths of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church 10 years ago, the legislature is morally obligated to pass two measures to make South Carolina safer.
First, it must pass a hate crimes law to stiffen penalties for hate-motivated crimes, such as the slaughter of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight of his church members in June 2015. South Carolina and Wyoming remain the only two states without such a law. Last year, the S.C. House passed the measure, but it died in the state Senate without a vote. This year, bills are stuck in committees in each chamber.
The legislature wraps up in less than two weeks. So get a move on, good ol’ boys and girls.
Next is a measure to close the so-called Charleston loophole that makes it easier for people like Emanuel murderer Dylann Roof to buy guns. Roof, who had a history of drug use, was allowed to buy a pistol despite an arrest that should have blocked the gun purchase. But because his FBI background check wasn’t completed within three business days, he was allowed to buy the gun.
State legislators can fix that problem with a new state law. But there’s also some hope something will be done at the federal level (although with this Congress, who knows?)
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., is trying to close the loophole at the federal level, noting in 2024 that there were millions of guns on the streets that were sold without a completed background check. The Charleston loophole, he said, represented “an abject failure of our current background check system to keep Americans safe.”
According to Goldman’s office, the FBI processed nearly 24 million background checks in 2020 and 2021. But about 4.5% – more than a million checks – took longer than three days, which allowed guns to be sold without completed background checks.
“While we continue to fight to close this loophole once and for all, we must also ensure that the FBI is able to track down firearms that should have never been sold in the first place. No gun sale should ever go forward on a technicality.”
He’s 100% right. South Carolina lawmakers need to get to work pronto and not let another session go by without passing a hate crimes law and closing the Charleston loophole here.
What better way to honor a colleague murdered in a hateful act of gun violence? What better way to curb the possibility of another mass slaying?
Lawmakers should be inspired by Confucius, who said, “It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.”
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