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Council adopts civil firearms-discharge ordinance; proposed hate-crime ordinance fails on roll call

Beaufort County Council · April 27, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Beaufort County adopted a civil-penalty ordinance prohibiting negligent or intentional firearm discharges that endanger life or property; a separate proposed criminal hate-intimidation ordinance failed on a 4–6 roll call after debate over First Amendment risks and whether state-level action is preferable.

The Beaufort County Council on April 27 adopted an ordinance adding a civil penalty for unlawful discharge of firearms in unincorporated parts of the county and considered, but did not adopt, a proposed hate-intimidation (hate-crime) ordinance.

On the firearms item, council held a public hearing and staff explained that the adopted civil ordinance omits…

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