South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is demanding that Columbia Mayor Stephen Benjamin (D) repeal city-level gun controls instituted despite the state’s firearm preemption law.
The NRA-ILA notes that South Carolina has a firearm preemption law, which prohibits “any county, municipality, or other political subdivision in the State” from passing gun laws that exceed those laws at the state level. It was the alleged violation of this very point that Wilson stressed in a letter to Mayor Benjamin.
The Post and Courier reports Wilson reached out to Benjamin to call for the repeal of the gun control and to note that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for lawsuits against the city if Benjamin will not relent.
Wilson said:
In an effort to uphold the rule of law and to ensure the protection of taxpayers, this office strongly urges that these ordinances be repealed. The ordinances not only undermine state law, but undercut the Second Amendment. They are an open invitation to costly litigation for which the municipal taxpayers must pay.
A similar scenario recently played out with Pittsburgh and the state of Pennsylvania, which also has a firearm preemption law. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D) put in place numerous gun controls following the October 27, 2018, attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. And even as the gun controls were enacted, Peduto was warned that a lawsuit was imminent.
On October 30, 2019, Breitbart News reported that a judge struck down Peduto’s gun controls in light of the state’s preemption law.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News 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.
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