In the 1990 film Goodfellas, Ray Liotta famously says, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Well, thanks to a new Republican bill in the South Carolina Senate, becoming a gangster may be as easy as legally carrying a firearm.
Sponsored by Republican Senator Greg Hembree, yes, the same guy who was a thorn in our side during the fight to pass Constitutional Carry, this bill has a technical glitch so massive it could classify every law-abiding gun owner in South Carolina as a hardened street criminal.
SB 76 was supposedly aimed at combating gangs in South Carolina. Sounds reasonable. Until you read it. Hembree’s bill lumps anyone in “possession of a weapon” into criminal gang activity.
(2) “Criminal gang activity” means… (s) any criminal offense in this State, any other state, or the United States that involves violence, possession of a weapon, or use of a weapon, whether designated as a felony or not, and regardless of the maximum sentence that could be imposed or actually was imposed.” (emphasis added)
Does Senator Hembree think Columbia, South Carolina, is the Colombia of Pablo Escobar in the 80s, and anyone with a firearm is a blood thirsty Sicario?
We sure hope not.
But as it stands, your friendly neighborhood duck hunter, your grandmother with a CCW, a dad taking the kids to the range on a Saturday morning… now just a mob of thugs, hoods, and wiseguys in the eyes of the law if this bill passes as written in South Carolina.
Five to twenty years in prison for simply carrying a firearm through a “Gun Free Zone?” No violence, no robbery, no criminal intent, just possession. Apparently, to some in Columbia, if you exercise your Second Amendment rights, you’re basically married to the mob.
Senator Hembree had a chance to fix it in committee, but apparently protecting gun owners was not on his legislative to-do list. So here we are, South Carolina gun owners are on the verge of being rebranded as gang bangers, thanks to this Republican Senator’s oversight.
Fortunately, pro-gun champion Senator Lee Bright has introduced an amendment that would fix this bill.
