Five months later, we still don’t know why Stephen Paddock rented a room in a Las Vegas high-rise and decided to commit one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history, killing 58 and injuring more than 500.
Despite the carnage and initial chatter among members of Congress — and even the National Rifle Association — about finally taking concrete steps to lessen the chances such an event could be repeated, the federal government has again proven itself incapable of taking the issue seriously. Fortunately, several states and cities have begun trying to make up for Congress’s derelict of duty.
After the shooting, Columbia, S.C., became the first city to officially ban devices called bump stocks, which allowed Paddock to turn semi-automatic weapons into ones that could fire more rapidly and consistently. Cities such as Denver have followed suit. More than a dozen states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut have or are considering doing the same. It’s a small measure, and in some ways symbolic, given that it’s not known how many people have bump stocks.
It won’t prevent every mass shooting. Guns, semi-automatic or bump stock-enhanced, are not the only way to commit massacres and unleash havoc and terror. So even if our leaders in Washington reverse course and get busy on bipartisan legislation banning bump stocks, no one should declare victory over the scourge of gun violence that is the worst in the developed world. Only diligent, painstaking law enforcement work, along with a strong partnership with the community, can root out the most dangerous among us before they can cause too much damage.
But the decision to act in the face of inaction from Washington by a growing number of cities and states is welcome nonetheless. It’s not as effective as more comprehensive background checks, better mental health care or other measures. Still, it makes a declaration that there are ways to cobble together the political will to begin tackling gun violence, even if it is one painstakingly slow step at a time.
Mass shootings and everyday shootings, no matter if they are in churches or schools, at country music concerts, or inside nightclubs, generate a few mostly localized headlines before quickly fading from public awareness. According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 800 people were shot and killed in less than a month after the Las Vegas shooting even as Congress refused to act. So far this year, more than 5,300 people have been shot, nearly 1,500 of whom died, including 60 children.
That list will only grow. At some point, we must muster the courage to do something about it. Banning bump stocks should be only the beginning.
— The Charlotte Observer
Meaningful self-defense is a human right.
When seconds count, police are minutes away.
Progressive-fascist gun-grabbers want a defenseless & vulnerable populace.
At any cost, including your life.
For rheir greater good, of course.
Columbia City Council and the Mayor are being sued for violation of South Carolina Gun Law.
scstatehouse dot gov/code/t23c031.php
ARTICLE 7
Local Regulations
SECTION 23-31-510. Regulation of ownership, transfer, or possession of firearm or ammunition; discharge on landowner’s own property.
No governing body of any county, municipality, or other political
subdivision in the State may enact or promulgate any regulation or
ordinance that regulates or attempts to regulate:
(1) the transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, or transportation of
firearms, ammunition, components of firearms, or any combination of
these things; or
(2) a landowner discharging a firearm on the landowner’s property to
protect the landowner’s family, employees, the general public, or the
landowner’s property from animals that the landowner reasonably believes
pose a direct threat or danger to the landowner’s property, people on
the landowner’s property, or the general public. For purposes of this
item, the landowner’s property must be a parcel of land comprised of at
least twenty-five contiguous acres. Any ordinance regulating the
discharge of firearms that does not specifically provide for an
exclusion pursuant to this item is unenforceable as it pertains to an
incident described in this item; otherwise, the ordinance is
enforceable.
HISTORY: 1986 Act No. 532, Section 2; 2008 Act No. 220, Section 1, eff May 21, 2008.
Effect of Amendment
The 2008 amendment designated item (1) and added item (2) relating to discharge on a landowner’s own property.
SECTION 23-31-520. Power to regulate public use of firearms; confiscation of firearms or ammunition.
This article does not affect the authority of any county, municipality,
or political subdivision to regulate the careless or negligent
discharge or public brandishment of firearms, nor does it prevent the
regulation of public brandishment of firearms during the times of or a
demonstrated potential for insurrection, invasions, riots, or natural
disasters. This article denies any county, municipality, or political
subdivision the power to confiscate a firearm or ammunition unless
incident to an arrest.
HISTORY: 1986 Act No. 532, Section 3; 2006 Act No. 347, Section 3, eff June 9, 2006.
Effect of Amendment
Funny how California, which has had the whole constellation of gun-guntrol laws in force for decades by now, still suffers from mass shootings at an undiminished rate. Heck, California has a higher per capita murder rate than infamously poor and drug-ridden Kentucky, despite how unrestricted firearms are in Kentucky.
In anything the differences between the gun-control laws of the various States proves the utter failure of gun-control laws to moderate criminal violence. Experience shows the various States per capita murder rates have no connection to how strict or loose a States gun-control laws are.