Gun-tax holiday 'stunningly idiotic'

I just learned from reading The Post and Courier that our Legislature — the one that allows the lowest cigarette tax in the country, the one that spends the least on anti-smoking programs, the one that won't adequately fund our schools, the one that allows us to be first when we should be last and last when we should be first — has, in its incredible stupidity, enacted a law that authorizes tax-free gun purchase days. This is the most preposterous piece of legislation that could possibly be enacted — legislative endorsement encouraging our citizens to go out and purchase guns.

We should have tax-free days for milk and baby formula, tax-free days (the entire year) to purchase school supplies and equipment, tax-free days encouraging education to lift us from last place, tax-free days for necessities of life, medical care and the like. Instead, we enact laws advocating the sale and purchase of killing machines. How much more primitive, how much more backward, how much more Neanderthal can this state become? Without doubt, this is stunningly idiotic. We're the laughing stock of the country.

Tax-free gun days! That's just the latest episode in the continuing downward spiral of this state. The state chose to spend $6.2 million on silly license plates, the state chose to spend $4 million on GPS devices for school buses, but the state can't fund our schools adequately. The roads are falling apart, schools buildings are in disrepair, equipment is antiquated, yet rather than outfitting schools with new computers, the state further reduces its income with the tax-free gun days, and it wastes millions on inane boondoggles like the GPS devices in school buses.

Now we reduce our income even more, even in these economically trying times, by giving the gun purchasers a tax break.

At $50,000 per year, we could have employed over 200 new teachers for the $10.2 million for license plates and GPS's. At $80,000 each, we could have purchased 127 new school buses for the $10.2 million.

But instead of making sensible purchases which could be useful for lifting this state out of last place, we encourage gun purchases so certain segments of our society can more easily go out and kill people, and rob stores, banks and individuals.

I'm a gun owner. I have handguns, rifles and shotguns. I hunt, and my son hunts. I believe in the Second Amendment. However, I don't believe in this insane law, and it should obviously be repealed in the very next session. Who's on board?

A. ELLIOTT BARROW Jr.

Barrow Law Firm

Chuck Dawley Boulevard

Mount Pleasant