South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Larry Martin has announced no further gun-related bills will receive a hearing this session. Of the more than 60 gun-related bills filed, one has passed, and three others—all pro-gun measures—have been sent to the full Judiciary Committee.
Among those not receiving hearings are proposals that would expand NICS check waiting periods, mandate gun registration and ban so-called “assault weapons.” Martin worries if he grants such bills a hearing, he could be labeled a “liberal, gun-grabbing chairman”—a label he says does not reflect his views on gun control at all.
“I don’t support any of that. I know there’s probably a handful of members who do. But this is one of those times where [I have] to step in and say, ‘You know, I don’t want my email system shut down or my phone lines blown up over something that has no chance of passage … To be blunt about it, no, we’re not taking them up.”
