Columbia may require owners to report stolen guns to police
The Columbia City Council is considering a bill requiring gun owners to report the theft of their firearms.
At-large City Councilwoman Dr. Aditi Bussells proposed the ordinance during Tuesday’s city council meeting, where it was unanimously referred to the council’s Public Safety Committee. If passed, gun owners would be required to report stolen guns to the Columbia Police Department within 24 hours.
“We’re having to add more creative solutions to put more tools in the toolbox” to fight gun violence, Bussells said.
Columbia had the third-highest rate of gun thefts among U.S. cities in 2020. That year 230 guns were stolen from cars in Columbia, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun reform. Seventy percent of the guns recovered by the Columbia Police Department are stolen, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said during the meeting.
While the current draft has not specified a punishment for failing to report a gun theft, Bussells hopes the law helps foster an “atmosphere of accountability” as shootings and gun homicides continue to rise in Richland County. By the beginning of July there had been 28 gun deaths in Richland County, according to the Richland County Coroner’s Office.
“This is something [the Columbia Police Department] has requested for a long time,” said Bussells. “It helps them do their jobs better.”
This is the city council’s second attempt in recent years to pass gun laws. The current city council voted in May to repeal a package of laws following a lawsuit by the state Attorney General’s Office and opposition from state lawmakers.
The laws, passed in 2019, made it illegal to own a gun within 1,000 feet of a school and gave the city the power to use nuisance laws against buildings where ghost guns were made. A so-called “red flag” law gave city police the ability to seize guns from individuals that a court had determined was a risk to themselves or others.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the city of Columbia, arguing that the laws violated a state law preventing local governments from passing regulations on the “transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, or transportation” of firearms. The city council voted to repeal the laws when a state court judge sided with the Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office has said it will not offer a formal comment on the law until it is out of committee, but a spokesperson said the proposed ordinance was not a “clear cut” violation of state law.
Bussells said she has worked hard to engage not only the Attorney General’s Office, but also stakeholders in the community and Upstate politicians who opposed the previous laws.
“It might be in that sweet spot that we can pass,” said Howard Duvall, a city councilman and chair of the Public Safety Committee.
The Public Safety Committee has until Aug. 23 to provide a comment on the proposed ordinance. The ordinance is expected to be reviewed by the full council in September.
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 11:42 AM.