Many of you have heard about our proposed ordinance 14-100, which bans the use of bump stocks and trigger cranks in the City of Columbia. The ordinance will be brought before City Council at the Dec. 5 Council meeting.

In Columbia, like much of the American South, we have a real and healthy respect for the right to bear arms, and we have no interest in demonizing gun owners. As Director of South Carolina’s second largest law enforcement agency, I carried a firearm while serving warrants with my officers, and I own several to this day.

It’s been nearly two months since the massacre in Las Vegas and while our nation has once more plunged into the same old gun debate with the same old talking points and the same old outrage, one question has repeated itself over and over in my head: How can we help?

In Columbia, we believe in responsible gun ownership, and we believe in common sense. The simple fact is that automatic weapons have been illegal in this country for more than 30 years, and the only purpose these devices serve is to circumvent that law multiplying firing rates tenfold to approximately 400-800 rounds per minute and turning a semi-automatic firearm into a deadly weapon. This is wrong in every sense.

Whether it’s banning texting while driving, cracking down on “bath salts” or issuing body cameras to all of our police officers, our city has consistently stepped forward to meet the challenges before us when others have failed to act.

This is not the first time we’ve taken the lead, but it may be the most important. I hope you’ll join us.

–Mayor Steve Benjamin