President Barack Obama has proposed new rules to fight gun violence.
For immediate actions that don't require Congress, he signed 23 executive orders, including one for tougher penalties on people who lie on background checks when purchasing guns and another that makes it easier for the government to research gun violence.
But Obama also wants sweeping Congressional action. The president wants to expand background checks on gun buyers to include private sales. He's also asking for bans on military style assault rifles and high capacity gun magazines.
"If responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, 'Enough, we suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue,' then change will come. That's what it's going to take," Obama said in a nationally televised address Wednesday.
The president's proposals have caused a sharp divide between gun supporters and gun control advocates on the Grand Strand and across South Carolina.
Gun store owner David Floyd says he doesn't have a major problem with at least some of the president's proposals, especially in regard to background checks.
"I believe there's a lot of very good things that can be done with the mental health profession," said Floyd, co-owner of The Gun Store in Conway.
But Floyd says the nation had a ban on assault weapons in the 1990's and it didn't work. And while he can see the argument against high capacity clips, he knows why some people want them.
"Most people that are advocates of having it is because they're free citizens and they're law abiding and they live in a country where if they have a home invasion of 2 or 3 individuals invade their homes, they want more than 7 rounds to defend themselves with."
But a Columbia woman who was involved in the Protest Easy Guns movement and the Million Mom March in support of gun control says she would like to see military style firearms and ammunition kept with the military and law enforcement only.
Joanne Hafter says no one is calling for the government to break into people's homes and confiscate their legal weapons. She believes there's a good chance for getting gun control legislation passed.
But Floyd says we still live in a free society and we can't stop an evil person from doing an evil act.
What do you think? Will the president's gun control proposals work, or are they an infringement of Americans' 2nd Amendment rights?
