Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Steven Benjamin (D) is boasting about his city council’s decision to ban bump stocks and apply a fine of $500 for anyone caught using one.
The city council passed the ban Tuesday night, and Benjamin had been a vocal proponent of the ban prior to the vote.
According to ABC News, Benjamin argued that bump stocks and similar accessories ought not have protection under law, saying, “There’s no way that Bump Stocks, Trigger cranks and [GAT] cranks should be legal in the United States of America. This is a small step towards trying to make sure there is some common sense in our gun laws.
He made clear his hopes that the city council’s gun control vote will be a trend-setter for other cities and for Congress. He said, “We’re hoping and praying that we can make one small step here that might inform our state legislature to act and make ownership of bump stocks a felony in South Carolina. We hope this inspires other city and states and hope for the federal government to act as well.”
In campaigning for the bump stock ban Benjamin listed no crimes that had been committed with the accessories in Columbia or South Carolina as a whole. Rather, a Hill report suggests his support for the ban revolved around the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. In fact, Benjamin used typical post-Vegas attack hyperbole to rally gun controllers to his side, saying, “The only purpose these devices serve is to circumvent that law multiplying firing rates tenfold to approximately 400-800 rounds per minute and turning a semi-automatic firearm into a mass murder machine.”
Benjamin’s statement completely overlooks the fact that the Vegas gunman could have been more accurate with his shots, therefore more deadly, had he not used the bump stock devices.
Columbia’s bump stock ban allows individuals to keep their bump stocks if they own them, but the accessories must be placed separate from firearms in storage.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.