Republicans will control Senate panel on gun background checks

Republicans will control the state Senate subcommittee set to hear testimony on the prospect of tightening South Carolina’s law governing gun background checks.

Outgoing Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican who lost his primary re-election bid, has said he doubts a passable bill will emerge from the hearings, set for this summer and fall.

But state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat and gun-control advocate who will sit on the panel, Monday called the group a “good draw” of senators, saying he can work with them.

Martin named GOP state Sens. Chip Campsen of Charleston County, Greg Hembree of Horry County and Greg Gregory of Lancaster County to the panel.

State Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, will chair the five-member subcommittee.

“All of these people have demonstrated the ability to roll up their sleeves, understand evidence and draw logical conclusions,” said Kimpson, who has pushed for stronger gun-control legislation since the massacre at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church last June. “That’s all I can ask for.”

Kimpson and other gun-control advocates want to expand the waiting period to buy a firearm, now at three days. They say they want to give authorities more time to investigate potential red flags found in background checks.

The goal for the subcommittee, Kimpson said, is to produce a bill that Republicans and Democrats can support.

“This committee is not a committee that is set up to fail,” said Malloy, adding he is optimistic the group can come up with a compromise. “It’s the right thing to do, and it’s common sense.”

Martin’s move to give the panel a GOP majority is unsurprising. Republicans control the S.C. Senate.

But, Kimpson said, “I’m pleased with the group and cautiously optimistic that we will get some movement on this issue.”

Hearing dates and settings have not yet been set. But at least one hearing will be held in Charleston, where nine black parishioners were shot and killed during Bible study at Emanuel last summer.

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Republicans will control Senate panel on gun background checks."