CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) -
The City of Charleston has passed an ordinance that will prohibit firearm enhancements like enhanced trigger devices, bump stocks or trigger cranks within the city.
The ordinance passed with a vote of 10 to 1.
In the ordinance, City Council recognized gun violence as being a health risk to its citizens.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said this ordinance would be a way to keep the community safe. Tecklenburg has said the ordinance is respectful of gun owner’s second amendment rights.
The ordinance references the shooting in Las Vegas during a country music concert that killed more than 50 people. It also goes on to say a bump stock allowed the firing rate of the weapon to put out 400 to 800 rounds per minute.
In 2010, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives declared a bump stock as a firearm part, and therefore not regulated, according to the city's ordinance.
The ordinance also cites a National Rifle Association position that bump stocks should be regulated by policyholders within the United States.
"Any device capable of being attached to a firearm for the purpose of increasing the firing rate or capabilities of an otherwise legal firearm using recoil, commonly known as 'bump stocks' or 'bump fire stocks,' are hereby declared unlawful and any person in actual or constructive possession of such a device is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable in municipal court," the ordinance states.
A similar section deems "trigger crank" or "gat crank" illegal and states their use can result in a misdemeanor if one is attached to a firearm.
The ordinance refers to the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church, stating that had the weapons used in that incident had either a trigger crank or bump stock, there would have been more casualties.
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