COLOMBIA – A proposal by the state chamber to ensure that South Carolina residents can keep their weapons, regardless of the arms control measures that the White House or Congress may take, obtained initial support from the state Senate.
The bill attempts to protect any future federal arms restrictions by classifying all weapons and bullets legally owned by Southern Carolinians as weapons by the state’s unorganized militia.
A 2-1 vote on March 23 sent the bill to the Senate Veterans Services Committee.
State Senator Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, who cast the “no” lone vote, called the proposal unnecessary nonsense.
The move, sponsored by Republican Senator Travelers Rest, Tom Corbin, adds language to an obscure 1881 state law on South Carolina’s “disorganized militia” – to which all “healthy” citizens over 17 automatically belong.
The governor has the authority to assemble this militia in times of war, rebellion or insurrection, although this has never happened.
There were probably no militias fighting in South Carolina “since Francis Marion and the marsh foxes shot the British” in 1781 during the American Revolution, Corbin told reporters after the hearing.
Corbin sees his proposal, emerging some 240 years after these swamp skirmishes, as a way of ensuring that South Carolina’s weapons are never confiscated.
This would give members of the state’s “militia” the right to buy and own all types of firearms, ammunition and their components – including magazines and clips – that were legal on December 30.
“At the end of the day, a federal government cannot disarm a permanent state army,” Corbin told the subcommittee.
The panel vote came a day after 10 people were shot to death in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
In response to the shooting, President Joe Biden renewed his pressure for stricter gun control laws, including a ban on high-capacity combs and assault weapons.
“I don’t have to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common life-saving measures in the future,” said Biden at the White House. “We can close the loopholes in our background check system, including the Charleston breach. This is one of the best tools we have now to prevent armed violence.”
The so-called “Charleston breach” came to light after the Emanuel AME Church shooting in June 2005.
In 2005, Dylann Roof went to buy a gun legally at a Midlands store. The sale should not have taken place because he was legally prohibited from buying the gun, but his background check did not find an arrest report indicating his use of drugs.
Since the background check was not completed after the three-day waiting period, Roof managed to obtain a .45 caliber Glock pistol, which he used to shoot nine people.
On March 11, the U.S. House passed a measure extending the time frame for FBI background checks on firearm purchases – a move advocated by Mayor Major Jim Clyburn, DS.C. Clyburn has presented the project four times since the 2005 attack.
With so much armed violence in the United States, lawmakers need to pass sensible gun control legislation, Johnson said.
“I totally believe in the Second Amendment, but this country is crazy,” said Johnson, adding that he has a concealed weapon license. “We have local terrorists and I’m sure those people who invaded the Capitol thought they were members of a kind of militia.”
This is the second time that Corbin has made the proposal. His 2013 bill was never voted on the Senate floor.
Corbin said the 2020 election, which gave Democrats control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, prompted him to try again. He said he had not presented his measure during the past four years because he was not concerned about the arms ban when Donald Trump was president.
“With a Republican administration in control in Washington, I was not afraid of any arms confiscation,” Corbin told reporters after the subcommittee’s vote. “If I had realized that, I would have filed the bill.”
The proposal comes at a time when the South Carolina House recently passed a bill that would allow gun owners trained with a concealed weapon license to openly carry their weapon in public.
A separate bill that would allow all adults who can legally own a gun to openly carry it, regardless of whether or not they have a license, has also recently been approved by the House Judiciary Committee. It can be debated in the plenary of the House next month.
Jamie Lovegrove reported from Columbia.
Follow Adam Benson on Twitter @ AdamNewshound12.