The Press to make South Carolina a state wide open to guns will continue this week as firearms advocates encounter a rapidly organizing opposition. A law opening bars and restaurants to concealed weapons will be signed into law by our gun toting Governor on Tuesday morning. Businesses of all kinds across the state scramble for the large, legally mandated signs necessary to keep concealed weapons out of their places of business, which have mandatory size, design, content and location requirements.
CWP Compliance supplies signs with online ordering.
SC is a traditionally conservative state with a long tradition of gun ownership for hunting, but it had a collection of fairly sane and restrictive gun laws which had evolved over a century of painful experience with a political and racial climate which tends towards violence. Our state has one of the highest murder and domestic violence rates in the country. We also have very poor statistics for violence and dangerious driving. The culture here developes a lot of rage. Generations of conservative legislators understood that having guns too handy here killed people.
However a push to open up more chances to carry and use firearms has been under way for several years. On December 31, 2013 there were 229,456 concealed weapons permits in our small state, with 83,012 new permits issued in 2013. The law the Governor will sign on Tuesday opens up bars and restaurants which serve alcohol to concealed weapons, reduces training requirements to obtain a permit, and reduces penalties for certain weapons use violations.
Meanwhile a man attempting to mediate a bar fight Saturday night was shot to death in the Governor's home community of Lexington and there was a shooting of indeterminate circumstances in Summerville this morning. Three people were shot in their homes on New Year's day in North Charleston through their unopened doors and two died.
Since vast numbers of concealed weapons permit holders aren't enough, the State Senate will take up debate on a bill to approve open carry of loaded weapons on Tuesday. The proposed bill S115 would require no permit, no training and no background check.
To live in SC is to be exposed to the gradual, corrosive reality of an accelerating ride backward to a new form or barbarism for a state where the leadership class preferred the illusion of a decent aristocratic social code to full on redneck. We're also seeing campaigns to promote carrying weapons directed towards women and African Americans here. Behind all of this, of course, is the rot which comes out of a media full of end of the world entertainment like Revolution or the Walking Dead, which glorify weapons and present utterly unrealistic scenarios for survival after social collapse.
The big national pro gun efforts are largely under the radar here, but they have lots ot tea party people, gun dealers and ranges to promote the agenda. Right wing radio media is always ready for more talk about "blowing away a perp." For a state awash in poverty, racism, violence and racism, the race to push guns into everyone's hands, everywhere all the time is an easy way to create an outlet for the type of frustration a culture which refuses to pay decent wages, provide education or make healthcare available generates. Based on their extensive online comments, the people carrying guns here increasingly see that as making them superior to the "sheeple" they expect to see gunned down. They're not looking for a shining city on a hill any more. They're stocking their bunkers, at least in their imaginations. A system is deliberately cultivating a population that has the ambition of stockpiling ten thousand rounds of ammunition.
We've been handing out cards advising bars and restaurants that we don't want lead with our drinks. If you're here, you can print some out to use yourself. Many places are struggling with the decision to put up signs, getting a lot of pressure from the gun people. For owners, it's a hard call. Staff just thinks if they have to deal with people with loaded weapons were they work serving food and drinks, the legislature should as well. Bouncers, bar tenders and wait staff tell us they want to open the State capital to weapons.
Push back has arrived here, and for an activist, it's an ugly job. Moms Demand Action is organizing statewide. They've published a plan of action for this week that is worth supporting, set out below. You can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/...
SOUTH CAROLINA CALL TO ACTION: The forecast is set to give you some time to advocate for Gun Sense this week, including phone calls and kids crafts. Stay warm and stay safe.
MONDAY/TUESDAY - call SC Senate Judiciary Committee members urging them to defeat S115 (open carry, no training, no permit, no background check). They are scheduled to debate the bill Tuesday. Expand this post to see phone numbers.
WEDNESDAY - Continue to send in photos (SouthCarolina@momsdemandaction.org) as you make Valentine's for our SC Congressional Delegation urging them to pass background checks. http://momsdemandaction.org/...
THURSDAY - Sign our petition to ask Facebook and Instagram to end the social media gun show - http://www.credomobilize.com/...
FRIDAY - As SC thaws from expected snow/ice, continue to talk to bars and restaurants, asking them to post No Concealable Weapons Allowed signs. Gov. Haley will sign the bill into law Tuesday (2/11). Our moms will continue to deliver the required signs statewide. Help us spread the word and be sure to look for the sign before you dine.
SC Senate Judiciary Committee Members to call:
Chair, Sen. Larry Martin (803) 212-6610
Sen. Brad Hutto & Sen. Luke Rankin (803) 212-6140
Sen. Vincent Sheheen & Sen. Creighton B. Coleman (803) 212-6032
Sen. John Scott & Sen. Tom Young (803) 212-6124
Sen. Karl Allen (803) 212-6040
Sen. Tom Corbin (803) 212-6100
Sen. Kevin Johnson (803) 212-6048
Sen. Katrina Shealy (803) 212-6108
Sen. Ross Turner (803) 212-6148
Sen. Marlon Kimpson (803) 212-6056
Sen. Gerald Malloy & Sen. Paul Thurmond (803) 212-6172
Sen. Chip Campsen (803) 212-6340
Sen. Chauncey Gregory (803) 212-6024
Sen. Sean Bennett (803) 212-6116
Sen. Greg Hembree (803) 212-6016
Sen. Thomas McElveen (803) 212-6132
Tue Feb 11, 2014 at 12:36 PM PT: The measure was signed into law this morning. The Governor is now supporting the open carry bill pending before the legislature: guns everywhere, out in the open, no permit, no training and no background check. Moms Demand Action is now organizing a statewide effort to resist more laws like this one.
Tue Feb 11, 2014 at 12:49 PM PT: You can contact Moms Demand Action in SC on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/...