A man watches the sun rise on the Confederate battle flag at the South Carolina Statehouse on July 10, 2015, in Columbia. Photo : Sean Rayford ( Getty Images )

The first time South Carolina left the Union, it was because the scions of that state wanted the brutal practice of chattel slavery to continue, sparking the Civil War. This time, a group of Republicans in the state House of Representatives are proposing the very same action over so-called gun rights. To which I say, “See ya!”




On Thursday, state Reps. Mike Pitts, Jonathon Hill and Ashley Trantham introduced legislation in the South Carolina Legislature that would allow the state to consider secession should the federal government violate the Second Amendment.



It states that “the general assembly shall convene to consider whether to secede from the United States based on the federal government’s unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms,” according to the New York Daily News.




Although Pitts acknowledged that the bill has no chance at passage, he said he wrote it to highlight the desperate need for guns.



“I see a lot of stuff where people even talk about totally repealing the Second Amendment, which separates us from the entire rest of the world,” Pitts said.



Good point, Pitts. We are separated from the rest of the world—in violent gun deaths.




This performative madness has gone so far that the very next day, yet another Republican politician, representing South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives, pulled out his loaded .38-caliber handgun and placed it on a table at a meeting with voters, saying that he was not going to be “a Gabby Giffords.”

On Friday, USA Today reported that Rep. Ralph Norman pulled out his piece during a “coffee with constituents” meeting at a Rock Hill, S.C., diner.


The woman Norman refers to is former Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords of Arizona, who was shot in the head and badly injured at a constituent gathering in 2011 where six people died.



And yet this Palmetto State halfwit vows to continue to display his gun at future meetings.




Yeah, so, between the virulent racism, a Confederate flag that just came down in 2015 after nine black parishioners paid in blood for it and overzealous gun-loving, consistently racist politicians, maybe South Carolina should kick rocks.

The black people of South Carolina had better beware if the secession happens, though.


Editor’s note: This post has been updated to clarify that Reps. Mike Pitts, Jonathon Hill and Ashley Trantham are members of the South Carolina House of Representatives.