The city of Columbia, South Carolina is getting ready to repeal several gun control laws that were struck down by a judge last year because they conflicted with state laws.
These laws are currently nullified and a big debate is raging over whether or not these laws should be completely repealed or rewritten to be in line with state law.
As reported in the Post and Courier:
It wasn’t immediately clear whether city leaders might consider new gun measures in the wake of the 2021 court ruling that nullified the current rules.
While Mayor Daniel Rickenmann bemoaned the court decision striking down the city ordinances when he was a council member and mayoral candidate in 2021, he said March 1 it might not make sense to continue to pursue something that had been struck down in court.
Knox, the city attorney, didn’t publicly address council members before the vote was deferred March 1.
The capital city in 2019 with the backing of then-Mayor Steve Benjamin passed a series of gun ordinances making it illegal to possess firearms within 1,000 feet of a school; allowing gun seizures from people under an extreme risk protection order, commonly known as a “red flag” law; and a rule that added buildings where homemade firearms known as “ghost guns” are constructed to be subject to the city’s nuisance laws.
One councilman, Joe Taylor, has argued that the city should move on from pursuing these regulations and start to “take care of city business”. “Rather than get back into state and national political questions, we need to fill the positions we’ve got available in the city and take care of city business,” Taylor told the Post and Courier.
