Joe Cunningham calls for gun reform in SC 6 years after Charleston church shooting

Two flower bouquets laid outside the gate of Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church on Tuesday morning as Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former South Carolina congressman Joe Cunningham announced a series of plans he said would curb gun violence.

During a press conference in downtown Charleston, Cunningham pledged to expand background checks on all gun sales and said he would support legislation that gives officials more time to review background checks, if he is elected governor. He also promised to fully fund evidence-based hospital and community programs that seek to break the cycle of gun violence.

Cunningham unveiled his gun-control platform in a speech delivered one block away from Emanuel AME Church, the historic house of worship where a white supremacist six years ago this week gunned down nine Black parishioners.

The hate crime was committed, Cunningham stressed, with a gun the convicted killer never should have been able to get.

“In the six years since the Mother Emanuel tragedy, little has changed,” Cunningham said. “The murderer who committed these atrocities could get a gun just as easily today as he did six years ago.”

Though Dylann Roof had an arrest record for drug use, which should have barred him from buying a firearm, he was able to purchase a .45-caliber Glock when his FBI background check was not completed within the required three-day deadline.

That breakdown in the background check process is now known as the “Charleston loophole.” When Cunningham was in Congress, he supported a bill that sought to extend the background review period from three days to 10 days.

Cunningham, who is one of three Democrats running for governor of South Carolina, was joined by community leaders and medical professionals as he laid out his vision for gun reform in a state that has struggled to implement such measures.

The two other Democrats in the race are state Sen. Mia McLeod and activist Gary Votour.

Charleston County Councilman Kylon Middleton, who is also the pastor of Mount Zion AME Church, said his life changed after the shooting at Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015.

“I attended the nine funerals, and I watched a former governor come and weep and wail at all of the funerals, but (she) left with no action on those particular matters, no legislative priorities centered around closing the Charleston loophole, no initiatives that demanded that we have action now,” he said.

Dr. Ashley Hink, a Charleston trauma surgeon who serves on the Trauma Injury Prevention Committee of the American College of Surgeons, said tackling this topic will require legislative action, statewide funding and innovative solutions.

Hink would like to see South Carolina fund hospital and community-based intervention programs. Along with medical treatment, the effort takes a holistic approach to addressing gun violence by connecting victims with community and hospital resources to address and lower someone’s risk in the future.

Hink is leading one of those programs at the Medical University of South Carolina.

“This is hurting and killing our children,” Hink said of gun violence ahead of the press conference. “This is disproportionately impacting people of color, particularly young Black men and young Black teenagers. We can’t turn a blind eye.”

Last month, South Carolina joined 45 other states that have some type of open carry law already in place when Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill that allows a concealed weapons permit holder to carry their firearm openly while in public.

The law also requires clerks to report pertinent information to the State Law Enforcement Division within five, not 30, days that would prohibit someone from buying or owning a gun. It goes into effect Aug. 16.

“Today, I signed the Open Carry with Training Act into law!” McMaster tweeted on May 17. “I will proudly support any legislation that protects or enhances a South Carolinian’s ability to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights, and that’s exactly what this bill does.”

Cunningham, who is a gun owner and a concealed weapons permit holder, criticized the law.

“Despite the fact that we have reached historic highs for violent crime, the Legislature’s only action on gun violence has been to make it easier to carry a firearm in this state. The current leadership has failed,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham’s push for gun control also comes as deadly crimes are on the rise.

At a June 3 news conference, South Carolina Law Enforcement Chief Mark Keel announced that more people were murdered in the Palmetto State in 2020 than in any single year on record.

“I never dreamed I would be talking about a 25% increase in murders,” Keel said at the time, adding that one of the most prominent differences is the proliferation of guns.

To date, no bills restricting who can purchase or own a gun have been passed by the South Carolina Legislature.

And, since the 2015 mass shooting, lawmakers have stalled on proposals aimed at expanding the number of days a gun purchaser must wait for a background check to be completed, even though one of the victims of the church shooting was one of their own, Sen. Clementa Pinckney.

A portrait of Pinckney hangs in the Statehouse chambers.