South Carolina is getting into the act now of pushing back on federal efforts at gun control. They discussed secession if the feds begin seizing legal firearms. Don’t think it can happen? Just check out what’s going on in Massachusetts:
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging Massachusetts’ ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, saying in a ruling released Friday that the weapons fall beyond the reach of the Second Amendment. U.S. District Judge William Young said assault weapons are military firearms and aren’t protected by the constitutional right to “bear arms.” Regulation of the weapons is a matter of policy, not for the courts, he said.
“Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens,” Young said. “These policy matters are simply not of constitutional moment.
In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to declare that it had seceded from the Union.
South Carolina debated seceding from the Union more than 150 years ago, a decision that ultimately led to the Civil War. Now, the topic has come up again, amid a national debate over firearms and gun rights.
A trio of state House Republicans on Thursday quietly introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to debate seceding from the U.S. if the federal government confiscates guns purchased in South Carolina.
The bill provides that “the general assembly shall convene to consider whether to secede from the United States based upon the federal government’s unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this state.”
The measure sponsored by Reps. Mike Pitts, Jonathon Hill and Ashley Trantham has no real chance this session. The deadline for bills to move from one chamber to the other is April 10.
