Monday letters: SC should build on Obama gun orders

Since Congress continues to fail us, President Obama answered our call to reduce gun violence by taking executive actions that will save lives nationwide and right here in South Carolina. Volunteers with the S.C. chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America — along with moms, survivors and other advocates across the country — helped drive more than 15,000 calls that shut down the White House switchboard as we urged the president to act.

The president’s orders will narrow the unlicensed sale loophole — through which millions of guns are sold each year — by clarifying that anyone making a living selling guns should be running background checks on purchasers.

The president’s orders will give law enforcement more tools to crack down on traffickers, who fuel the black market for guns that flood our streets and endanger our communities. But millions of guns will still be sold without a background check; that’s why we still need Congress and our state lawmakers to step up and close the loopholes that make it easy for dangerous people to get guns.

And that is why I, together with other Moms Demand Action volunteers, will continue to fight for a safer South Carolina. We will not rest until every gun sale includes a background check. South Carolinians’ lives depend on it.