Open Carry Gun Bill and Gun Violence
The Columbia, S.C. Branch of the NAACP is alarmed and disappointed in the bill which passed the South Carolina House and Senate.
South Carolina is often ranked among the worst in the country for gun violence and domestic killings. Columbia/Richland County, S.C. gun violence has increased exponentially, and this latest bill will only increase those statistics, causing fights to become shootings, leading to racial profiling of gun owners, an increase in the suicide rate and putting all residents and law enforcement at a higher risk of danger. We want to state unequivocally that #WE-ARE-DONE-DYING.
The Columbia, S.C. Branch of the NAACP believes that we all should be making efforts to get guns off the streets. This bill will result in exactly the opposite, and we vehemently oppose the passing of this bill. Our stance is to educate about and advocate against the Open Carry Gun bill and Gun Violence.
Hate Crimes Law
The Columbia, S.C. Branch of the NAACP applauds the South Carolina House for passing the “Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act,” requiring a more severe penalty for specific crimes committed against a victim because of the victim’s race, color, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability.
South Carolina is only one of three states in the country without a hate crimes law. This deficiency came to national attention when Dylan Roof could not be charged with a hate crime which undoubtedly, he would have in other states. It is fitting that the new law is named after one of his tragic victims. The Columbia, S.C. Branch of the NAACP calls upon the South Carolina Senate to approve of the Act unanimously and swiftly
Firing Squad for Execution
The Columbia, SC Branch of the NAACP is opposes South Carolina forcing death row inmates to face a firing squad, a measure which recently passed the South Carolina House and Senate.
There are currently only three states in the country and only a few nations in the world which allow the barbaric act of carrying out execution by a firing squad. The Columbia, SC Branch of the NAACP believes that South Carolina should not regress and expand imposition of the death penalty especially now, when polling indicates that the public is increasingly against any death penalty sentence.
It is well documented that in South Carolina, race plays a part in which defendants are to be executed. The Columbia, SC Branch of the NAACP continues to believe, as the late Justice Thurgood Marshall articulated in Furman v. Georgia, that the death penalty is unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment and as implemented against mostly Black defendants, in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
