South Carolina Has Another Gun Problem
BY Herschel Smith8 years, 5 months ago
His name is Elliott Summey.
Charleston County Council Chairman Elliott Summey, a guns rights advocate who said he owns “a pile of guns,” now has said he mistakenly voted in favor of a resolution last week calling for state and federal authorities to outlaw the very type of firearms he owns.
Summey said there was some confusion at last Thursday’s vote because the resolution, as originally presented in writing, called for laws “banning all assault-style weapons” in South Carolina. Summey said he took that to mean fully automatic machine guns that fire hundreds of rounds, as were depicted in a video shown to council.
The council action had no force of law — a resolution is a statement of opinion — but it’s passage was noted by the National Rifle Association and websites such as Firearmslife. Summey, who switched political affiliations in 2012 and joined the Republican Party, issued a statement Monday disavowing his days-earlier support of the resolution.
“I’m not voting to take away guns that I already own,” Summey said Tuesday. “That’s insane.”
No, what would be insane is to believe you didn’t mean your vote. A real gun owner and gun rights supporter wouldn’t have been hoodwinked by words, and would have voted against any new gun control law anyway.
What happens down in Charleston anyway? Where do they get these people? It was the Charleston lobby that persuaded the now defrocked Larry Martin to kill open carry because of all that tourism that would certainly have shut down if someone had seen a gun.
Good grief.
On July 21, 2016 at 9:33 am, Fred said:
You know what Mr. Smith, I’ve concluded that SC has a serious lack of “gun nuts”. I can’t recall ever seeing anybody, not just on your site but, on the interwebz from SC or even somebody discussing SC gun rights. SC may be ripe for WA, OR, CO, or even CA style controls. Is it a state full of fudds? Sad.
On July 21, 2016 at 9:45 am, Douglas Mortimer said:
Sootch00 and Mr Guns N Gear on youtube and Full30 are in SC. There are quite a few others. The problem I think, is that SC has been invaded by northerners fleeing high property taxes from places like CT, NY, NJ, etc…
Just like Colorado, they have been infested with progressive CA people for decades.
On July 21, 2016 at 9:50 am, Herschel Smith said:
“SC has been invaded by northerners fleeing high property taxes from places like CT, NY, NJ, etc…”
Word.
And I would have thought that in a state like S.C., open carry would have already been the law of the land. Too timid for me.
On July 21, 2016 at 10:04 am, Douglas Mortimer said:
Come on out to Wyoming.
Last year I read a letter to the editor in our local excuse for a paper where an individual moved here from Chicago and had to whine to the editor about our “lax gun laws”. And yet Wyoming has none of the problems that Illinois is plagued with. Low crime, low violent crime, high rate of carry, etc… The responses were basically, “if you don’t like it, leave!”.
6 out of 10 households in this state own guns. We have more FFLs per capita than any other state, but we have the lowest population of any state in the Union.
If you meet the conditions of the permitting process here, you can carry without a permit. Open or concealed. I got the permit anyway for 2 reasons. State reciprocity with 33 or so other states, and more importantly it allows you to expedite the NICS process when you purchase a firearm. You’ve already been “vetted” by the FBI and your county sheriff. I can walk into a gun store and walk out 20 minutes later with a firearm.
No FOID cards, no waiting periods, no BS.
On July 21, 2016 at 10:15 am, Herschel Smith said:
“I can walk into a gun store and walk out 20 minutes later with a firearm.”
Right. And that’s about the only reason to have one in my book, and the reason I do as well.
On July 21, 2016 at 2:12 pm, Pat Hines said:
That’s the case in South Carolina as well. No NICS phone call.
On July 21, 2016 at 2:11 pm, Pat Hines said:
Like North Carolina used to be, South Carolina has never been an open carry state, at least not in the 20th century and not now.
Now that Larry Martin has been shown the door, along with a few others, we should be able to acquire open carry next year.
Note, open carry of long guns is the law already, it’s only open carry of handguns that is restricted.
On July 21, 2016 at 9:52 am, Herschel Smith said:
Mortimer has the analysis below.
On July 21, 2016 at 2:08 pm, Pat Hines said:
I don’t know where you live or what you listen to, but South Carolina has a very active pro-self defense rights movement and activists. We set up a state-wide boycott of businesses that had placed “No Concealed Firearms” signs at their location that saw significant reductions of those businesses in just a few months.
I’m a South Carolina native, living here now, we do have active resistance to new gun confiscation laws. Further, we just rid ourselves of the notorious Larry Martin, who had been a major road block to increased access to our intrinsic right to be armed.
On July 21, 2016 at 2:58 pm, Fred said:
Oh, I see your comments around several places. Did not know you are in SC. I’m encouraged and my sense of the south is now revived although I guess my new question would be; why doesn’t SC news make it to national outlets. Maybe it does and I just run in different circles from ya’ll. Anyway, now I know.
I’m in East TN. We are trying to get rid of 2 traitors in particular at the moment. They being, Overbey and Black. Both have endorsements from the nra but expressed “concern” over constitutional carry. Black claims she got her carry permit after being assaulted and then resisted being thrown into a car by 3 armed men. None of that happened, you now, just like reporters and politicians claim to have been in combat or something. Just met with my state senator (not to washington) and my county commissioner 2 weeks ago. They are pretty clear (smile) that we want to go permit-less asap.
It’s an honor to be in the fight with you, sir.