Advocates for gun control rally in Greenville ahead of primary election
Walhalla High School senior Hayden Laye declaimed statistic after statistic underscoring the high level of gun violence in South Carolina and around the nation in an impassioned speech for more than a hundred Upstate residents who gathered in downtown Greenville Saturday afternoon to advocate for gun reform.
The marchers were among hundreds that took to the streets across the nation Saturday calling on lawmakers to take action on gun reform.
“There have been 13 mass shootings in the state of South Carolina since the beginning of the year, the fifth most of any state in the entire union,” Laye told the crowd, citing data from Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks mass shootings in the U.S. “Gov. Henry McMaster and lawmakers in Columbia have blood on their hands.”
Dozens of parents, educators and students gathered at One City Plaza in downtown Greenville for the rally and marched down North Main Street to the Peace Center, many chanting “gun safety now.”
Laye told The Greenville News he organized the rally after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary School last month that left 19 students and two teachers dead. He organized a Facebook group, South Carolina for Gun Reform, that now has 700 members for nonpartisan advocates calling for gun reform laws like universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
“We are calling for basic measures like universal background checks which are supported by almost 90% of Americans,” Laye told the crowd. “Yet 51 senators in the United States Senate are sitting on their butts doing nothing while children are dying.”
Roughly a dozen Upstate residents spoke during the demonstration, calling upon others to contact their local legislators and vote in the upcoming primary on June 14 for representatives who support gun safety measures.
“It wasn't just Uvalde, it was also Buffalo,” said Miles Hampton, a 27-year-old Converse College graduate from Spartanburg. “I saw 10 of my fellow African Americans being killed, simply just for shopping and for being Black.”
Hampton’s mother, Cassie Moore, who also attended the rally, is an educator and librarian of Seneca and his father is an assistant principal. He told The Greenville News he’s been blessed to not be impacted by gun violence thus far, but he doesn’t want to see his family be killed.
“This whole cycle of gun violence has to end right here and right now,” Hampton said during the rally. “Even if these officials in South Carolina don't want to listen, we're going to still push to actually make a change, because I'm going to take my thoughts and prayers to the voting booth.”
Moore also spoke during the event, decrying the call to arm teachers in schools as a solution discussed by public officials. Just last week at an event at FR8yard in Spartanburg, Gov. McMaster called for “putting law enforcement officers in every classroom.”
Later, McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said McMaster meant to say an armed officer in every school as opposed to every classroom.
“Arm me with resources to teach my kids,” Moore said to the crowd Saturday. “Give me the resources so I can teach my kids about the value of human life, because every time these things happen and nothing gets done, all these kids know is that my life is not valuable, your life is not valuable, and we have to stop that kind of conversation.”
Moore said she didn’t want a gun in her school.
“I didn't choose this career for that,” she said. “I want to arm my students with the knowledge. That's my weapon.”
During the event, the crowd often chanted “vote them out” in response to comments about state legislators and public officials' inactive measures on gun safety.
“You have a chance to do that this week,” Laye said in reference to the state and local primary election on June 14. “You have great choices this year, go to SCVotes.gov and register, get 10 other people registered and get to the polls this week and go to the polls in November and vote them out.”
Gov. McMaster told reporters during a visit to North Charleston last week that he doesn’t support President Joe Biden’s proposed gun control measures for a ban on assault weapons and raising the age for people to purchase firearms, saying it could infringe on Second Amendment rights. However, the governor does support a proposal from state Sen. Dick Harpootlian to increase penalties for people who unlawfully possess guns.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal last week after the event at FR8yard that Gov. McMaster’s previous promises to put resource officers in schools have failed.
"I'm not interested in playing politics when it comes to protecting our kids," Cunningham said. "We know what we need to do to curb this senseless violence – make it harder for people who want to cause harm to get access to guns by closing the Charleston loophole, expanding background checks and raising the age to purchase rifles."
The loophole refers to a federal law that allows gun purchases to move forward by default after three business days – even if a background check has not been completed.
During Saturday’s event, Rector Furman Buchanan of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Greenville spoke about holding legislative workshops for members of his parish and encouraging them to reach out to their elected officials. He said the workshops were born following a sermon about gun violence during Memorial Day weekend after the Uvalde shooting and 14 others around the country.
Buchanan told the Greenville News it was the sermon he received the most positive feedback on in roughly 12 years of preaching.
“I believe this is a clear-cut moral issue and it calls for people of faith to speak out,” he said. “Prayers aren’t just thoughts in our minds, but the actions we take. Our people are upset and motivated.”
Kathryn Casteel is an investigative reporter with The Greenville News and can be reached at KCasteel@gannett.com or on Twitter @kathryncasteel.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Gun control rally held in Greenville ahead of primary election
