North Carolina newspaper slams South Carolina gun politics

A newspaper in North Carolina slammed recent legislative efforts of lawmakers just one state to the south to loosen gun regulations in an editorial published Monday.

The Charlotte Observer editorial board cautioned readers the state “shouldn’t follow South Carolina’s lead on guns” after House lawmakers there approved a permitless carry measure instead of the numerous “Charleston Loophole” proposals now relegated until next year’s session.

“This is occurring in a state that suffered one of the highest-profile shootings in recent memory and routinely ranks among the worst places in the nation for domestic violence,” the board wrote. “Tar Heels shouldn’t be fooled into believing this problem is confined to the other side of the state line.”

In June 2015, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, a white supremacist intent on starting a race war, murdered nine black parishioners during a bible study at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston with a handgun he wasn’t legally allowed to own. In the two years since the attack, South Carolina Democrats have pushed multiple bills designed to extend the federal government’s three-day waiting period on gun sales with pending background checks to as many as 28 — or in the case of one proposal, indefinitely.

The bills struggled to gain traction in the Republican-controlled General Assembly as GOP leaders insisted the idea of the “Charleston Loophole” is misguided, at best.

State House Majority Leader Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York, told The State in February any attempt to thwart the Second Amendment wouldn’t get very far in the Legislature.

“From the vantage point of the (House) Republican Caucus as a whole, certainly honoring the second amendment is high on the agenda,” he said. “People talk about loopholes, but the clear indicator is how gun rights and second amendment rights have been stymied or stepped on by regulations.”