THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

A new report by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, focusing on the cost of gun violence in South Carolina, pegs the annual cost to taxpayers over $293,000,000 yearly.

South Carolina has the 12th highest death rate in the country due to gun violence — and it’s costing the state’s taxpayers more than $293 million a year.

This is according to a new report prepared by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a national policy organization that advocates for stricter gun control measures.

The findings of the report, shared first with McClatchy, are sobering. In studies of statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Carolina had an annual average of 309 gun-related homicides, 495 gun-related suicides and “thousands” of nonfatal shootings from 2010 to 2014. The Giffords Law Center found that between 2014 and 2017, gun homicides across the state increased by more than 25 percent.

Including the cost to S.C. taxpayers, the overall annual cost of gun violence in South Carolina is $1.5 billion, or roughly $915 per person — the 10th highest per-person cost of gun violence in the United States, according to the authors of the report.

“People don’t think about gun violence in a way that would impact them on a day-to-day basis, unless, of course, they are more involved or someone who has been a victim,” said Robin Lloyd, managing director of Giffords, the larger advocacy group that houses the Giffords Law Center.

Lloyd said that the new, state-specific report was designed to “make sure that people understand that, while they may not feel the gun violence that’s occurring in South Carolina on a day-to-day basis, there’s this other cost affiliated with it.” She said she hopes the report will “really start a conversation about what can be done.”

In the two-page report, the organization makes three suggestions for possible legislative responses: Requiring background checks for all firearm purchases, implementing “evidence-based violence intervention strategies” to combat street violence and allowing courts to temporarily revoke guns from people who present threats to themselves or others.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is currently working on legislation that would give grants to states that pass laws allowing judges to grant “extreme risk protection orders.” But the chances the Republican-controlled South Carolina Legislature will consider such a measure — or any measure to restrict gun access — are slim, especially when an organization with an agenda is making the recommendations.

In reviewing some of the Giffords Law Center’s main findings, Brian Symmes, spokesman for S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, indicated there would not be decisive action as a result of the study.

“The best way to curb violence of any kind is to continue to invest in the men and women of our law enforcement community who put their lives on the line every day to protect us,” Symmes said in a statement. “That’s why Gov. McMaster has advocated for a trained law enforcement officer in every school, along with making a mental health counselor available to every student in the state.”

How sweet of the governor to stick with the failed policies of the past and not upset the NRA. And the state still has a ways to go to reach Number 1.