COLUMBIA, SC (WCBD) – Governor Henry McMaster has joined a call to impose tougher penalties for illegal and stolen firearms.

Governor McMaster said Tuesday he supports Sen. Dick Harpootlian and members of the South Carolina Senate who are offering no bail and mandatory minimum sentences in circuit court for possession of illegal weapons.

“Law enforcement needs help preventing minors and criminals from having illegal and stolen firearms,” he said. said in a tweet.

Senator Harpootlian spoke to colleagues in the Senate just days after three men opened fire inside the Columbiana Mall, injuring more than a dozen people.

Nine people were injured in a shooting at a Hampton County nightclub a few days later. Just over a week later, two groups fired multiple shots at each other near a community baseball diamond in North Charleston where several children were playing a game.

“It comes down to people owning and using firearms who do not have the legal right to do so,” Senator Harpootlian told the Senate. “The ease of access to firearms by young people, mostly, and their ability to carry them or feel like they can carry them anywhere is killing us and killing them.”

Harpootlian said he wants to change existing South Carolina law to make carrying a criminal offense illegal and increase the penalty to up to five years in prison with a mandatory one-year minimum. The current penalty is a maximum fine of $1,000 and a maximum jail term of one year.

“Send me these reforms and I will sign them,” Governor McMaster said.