|
South Carolina Repeals "One-Gun-A-Month" Law |
Gun
owners in South Carolina can celebrate now that the South Carolina Legislature
has repealed the state’s "one-gun-a-month" law.
This law limited the rights of law-abiding citizens by prohibiting
multiple handgun purchases within a 30-day waiting period.
HB 3442 is now headed to Governor Mark Sanford (R).
Luis Tolley, state legislative director for The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said, “The gun cap's repeal would be "unfortunate”. "South Carolina passed this law because gun traffickers were buying handguns in bulk and driving them to Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago, where they were sold to street criminals," he said.
Yet Mr. Tolley fails to address a 2002 report from the U.S. attorneys office that shows 12 percent of the pistols seized in New York City connected with violent crimes were from South Carolina according to state Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart. "There's still a fairly high percentage of guns going to New York City from Southern states," Stewart said.
Gun
rationing laws set a bad and unconstitutional precedent that government can
limit the frequency with which a law-abiding citizen may exercise a
constitutionally protected right. If governments can limit law-abiding
citizens to one gun a month, they can extend it to one gun a year, one-gun a
lifetime, or no guns at all."
One-gun-a-month" laws have
been tried in South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, and have failed in all
three states. After South Carolina imposed its law in 1975, violent crime
soared there and in New York City, the supposed beneficiary of the law. In the
1990’s, violent crime declined nationally, but rose in Washington, D.C., the
supposed beneficiary of Virginia’s law. Maryland imposed its law in 1998,
yet it has the highest robbery rate of any state, and Baltimore’s homicide
rate is among the worst of all major U.S. cities.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8672554.htm