GUN THEFT PREVENTION CAN SAVE LIVES ACROSS SOUTH CAROLINA
- CUBNSC
- Mar 17
- 4 min read
By Javar Juarez | CUBNSC
Columbia, S.C. — Today at the South Carolina State House, lawmakers, advocates, and survivors gathered with a unified message that should resonate across every community in the state: responsible gun ownership must include secured storage, and failing to do so is costing lives.
The press conference, organized alongside Moms Demand Action and community partners, centered on a growing but preventable crisis—gun theft and unsecured firearms leading to accidental shootings, suicides, and violent crime.
“Gun safety is not a political thing,” said Senator Tameika Isaac Devine. “It is a matter of protecting our children, our families, and our future.”
Devine, who represents District 19, spoke candidly about multiple tragedies in her own community involving legally owned firearms that were left unsecured. Children gaining access to those weapons resulted in accidental deaths and suicides—incidents she emphasized were entirely preventable.
“Safe storage laws do not take away anyone’s rights,” she continued. “What they do is affirm that rights come with responsibility.”
A Pipeline of Violence: Guns Stolen, Lives Changed
While much of the national conversation focuses on illegal firearms trafficking, South Carolina leaders highlighted a more immediate and local reality. Many guns used in crimes are not purchased illegally—they are stolen from everyday citizens.
Senator Deon Tedder delivered one of the most pointed arguments of the day, drawing a direct line between unsecured firearms and rising crime.
“The number one way individuals, particularly younger individuals, get their hands on guns is out of vehicles,” Tedder said.
Unlocked cars have become easy targets. Individuals move from vehicle to vehicle, checking doors. When they find a firearm left in a glove compartment or on a seat, it becomes a weapon that can later be used in a robbery, assault, or even homicide.
“It seems to be common sense,” Tedder added. “If we can regulate alcohol and other substances to keep them out of the hands of children, why can’t we do the same with guns?”
Tedder, himself a gun owner, emphasized that secure storage requirements are not about limiting rights but about preventing irreversible harm.
“What does it cost to save a life?” he asked. “I’d pay ten times over to save the life of a child.”
The Human Cost Behind the Data
The most powerful testimony came not from policymakers, but from those who have lived through unimaginable loss.
Melody McFadden, an Army veteran, clergy member, and responsible gun owner, shared the devastating impact gun violence has had on her family across generations.
“My mother was shot and killed in front of my little sisters,” she said.
Years later, her niece was killed in a mass shooting in Myrtle Beach. Most recently, her 17-year-old granddaughter—an advocate against gun violence—was killed in a drive-by shooting.
That tragedy, she revealed, was directly tied to stolen firearms.
“The young men who committed that crime said they stole weapons from cars,” McFadden explained.
Her message to the public was urgent and unflinching:
“It’s not your family yet. But until you do something, you are gambling with the lives of the people that you love.”
A Preventable Crisis
Advocates at the State House stressed that gun violence, particularly involving children, is not inevitable. It is preventable.
Secure storage practices—locking firearms, keeping them unloaded, and storing ammunition separately—have been proven to reduce accidental shootings, suicides, and theft.
Yet across South Carolina, too many firearms remain easily accessible in homes and vehicles.
According to speakers at the event, one gun is stolen from a vehicle every nine minutes in the United States, and many of those weapons are later used in crimes.
The SMART acronym from the “Be SMART” campaign stands for:
S – Secure all guns in your home and vehicles
M – Model responsible behavior around guns
A – Ask about the presence of unsecured firearms in other homes your child visits
R – Recognize the role of guns in suicide
T – Tell your peers to be SMART
A Call to Action
Despite bipartisan acknowledgment of the issue, proposed safe storage legislation in South Carolina has yet to receive a committee hearing.
Both Senator Devine and Senator Tedder emphasized that public pressure will be essential to moving the conversation forward.
“This is a legislative body. We are supposed to debate these things,” Tedder said. “But that only happens when people demand it.”
The message from the State House was clear: the responsibility does not rest solely with lawmakers. It belongs to every gun owner, every parent, and every community member.
Because in South Carolina, the difference between life and death may come down to a simple decision—whether a firearm is securely stored or left within reach.
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