Columns

There are many honors and responsibilities that come with being a legislator. But none is more profound than sharing a community’s appreciation to the men and women who have put service above self, and made the commitment to go wherever they were sent for the purpose of protecting the freedoms that we hold dear.

By the time you are reading this, Thanksgiving will either be coming up very soon, or will have just recently passed. It has always been one of my favorite holidays.

In my house growing up, Thanksgiving was even more than Christmas, the holiday that my extended family used as an excuse to get together. So, while Christmas was Mom and Dad and my siblings, Thanksgiving was always a huge get-together with lots of family, food, football and naps.

You never forget your roots, especially, as in my case, when you were fortunate to be blessed with a good experience in those formative years.

I spent a good portion of my youth on Sherwood Circle where we lived in the area known as Forest Hills.

A friend once teased me saying we lived in the neighborhood of “rich kids.”

True, they were professional people, and many, as I reflect, were at one point or another the “movers and shakers” in Lancaster who had a major hand in helping Lancaster prosper through the years.

Despite its gun-friendly citizenry and reputation, South Carolina law doesn’t go out of its way to protect Second Amendment rights. Ours is one of only six states that impose an outright ban on all forms of handgun “open carry,” for example, and one of only three states that prohibit concealed weapons permit (CWP) holders from carrying weapons into restaurants that sell alcohol.

Unfortunately, state law isn’t the only thing South Carolina gun owners need to be concerned about. Another is federal coercion.