Proposed bill would fund school resource officers with firearms fee

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WPDE) — A bill that was introduced in the South Carolina House of Representatives last week would impose a fee on firearm sales to help fund school safety.

The bill would impose a seven percent fee on the sale of handguns and that money would go into the school safety fund to help provide school resource officers, according to the filed bill.

The fee would be “equal to seven percent of the gross proceeds from the sale of a firearm,” and would be credited to the fund established within the State Department of Education.

“The fund must be expended only to employ or otherwise provide school resource officers. Each school district may apply to the Department of Education for a disbursement from the fund,” the bill states.

The Department of Education would give priority to districts that previously did not have a full-time school resource officer at each school.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Brawley, King, Thigpen, Cobb-Hunter, Williams, Jefferson, Anderson, Parks, Gilliard, Howard, Brown and Hart on Thursday, March 22, and is now in the Ways and Means Committee.