Nancy Mace’s tweets made active shooter hoax worse on USC’s campus | Opinion

While students at the University of South Carolina were frantically running for cover after reports of an active shooter on Sunday night, the woman who wants to be South Carolina’s next governor was busy falsely accusing an umbrella-carrying student of being the suspect.

Rep. Nancy Mace could have asked for calm — or just waited on more facts before saying anything at all. She did neither. She tweeted a photo and captioned it: “Here is the alleged school shooter at USC — BOLO — white male, black shorts, grey tshirt, backpack.”

She later deleted it. But, instead of apologizing for the irresponsible act during what turned out to be a hoax, she dodged responsibility and turned to the classic line many conservatives cling to during such situations.

“Real, or a hoax, or a mistake, now would be an appropriate time to talk about hardened security at schools of all grades, colleges and universities,” she said in a follow-up tweet. “This was a terrifying experience for students on campus and their families. Many are confused after being told there was an active shooter. Some are even afraid to return.”

The next day, she told The State, “Last night, my only title that mattered was ‘mom.’ Like thousands of others I was a concerned mother with a child on campus at USC doing all I could, in a scary moment, to share information that was flowing quickly to keep our kids safe.”

Being a mom is no excuse, especially for someone vying for a position that requires calm under fire to lead a state through unexpected emergencies.

It was terrifying for students and others near campus, many of whom went scrambling for cover. Some rushed into the student center and barricaded themselves inside. Some abandoned burgers on the grill during a planned barbecue. A coffee shop locked its doors and employees encouraged people to shelter on the top floor.

Though it turned out to be a false alarm, the reaction to the perceived threat made sense. This is South Carolina, after all, a state that has among the worst gun violence rates in the nation, and some of its most porous gun safety laws.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health counted more than 1,000 South Carolina gun-related deaths in 2023, the latest statistics available. More than 450 of those deaths were homicides, most of the others suicides. Firearms were the second-leading cause of death among the young here in 2023. The overall gun death rate has increased by 60% since 2013.

Our gun laws are lax, in the extreme. We don’t require a concealed-carry permit. We don’t require background checks for handgun purchases.

This is the state where Dylann Roof walked into a Charleston church and massacred nine people during Bible study in 2015. He was able to purchase guns through a legal loophole — a loophole that’s still on the books a decade later.

Students on USC’s campus were right to respond fearfully to an active shooter report though it was unfortunate that in the evacuation of the library two students sustained minor injuries and had to go to the hospital.

To that, our would-be governor poured fuel on the fear and offered up the same inadequate, tin-eared solution we’ve heard 1,000 times after every actual shooting, more “hardened security at schools of all grades, colleges and universities.”

Maybe that means using National Guard troops, like the ones Mace has praised Gov. Henry McMaster for sending to Washington, D.C., for the crime problem there.

The absurdity of Mace’s “solution” in real numbers: There are nearly 1,300 public schools, about 400 private schools and another 61 colleges and universities in the state.

Given that we have about 10,000 National Guard troops, including the 200 McMaster sent to D.C., we could send roughly five to each school to “harden” them.

Better yet, why not wrap USC, the state’s largest university, in bubble wrap? Maybe send in the Marines? Add metal detectors at every entrance on the sprawling Columbia campus, including on public sidewalks? Put bars on the windows? Get rid of windows altogether?

Because everything should be discussed in our efforts to protect our children, whether they are in kindergarten or are about to graduate from USC’s law school — except doing anything about the proliferation of guns in the state and the nation.

Because that would be going too far. Because that would be an infringement upon rights.

Because it’s better to have people scrambling to get away from phantom active shooters than getting serious about taking steps that could make them safer from actual guns.

Issac J. Bailey is a McClatchy opinion writer in North Carolina and South Carolina.

This story was originally published August 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM.