A South Carolina state senator has proposed making everyone over 17 who can legally own a gun a member of a militia in order to prevent federal laws from seizing guns.
The proposal comes as mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left at least 18 people dead since last week have reignited calls from gun control advocates for tighter restrictions on buying firearms and ammunition.
South Carolina’s constitution allows the governor to call up an “unorganized militia” made up of “all able-bodied male citizens of the state between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years.” The proposal by State Sen. Tom Corbin would automatically expand membership to everyone who is over 17 and could own a gun.
Supporters of the bill said if everyone is a member of a militia, then they all fall under the opening clause of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that starts “A well regulated Militia.” That way a federal law restricting weapons would not apply in South Carolina since almost all residents would be in the unorganized militia.