Is South Carolina Expanding CCW Reciprocity?
I came across an opinion piece that is opposed to a bill in the South Carolina legislature. I haven’t been able to find the details yet, but I gather that the bill would expand the set of reciprocal CCW States:
At issue is South Carolina’s concealed weapons law, which allows people who pass a criminal background check and an eight-hour training class or its equivalent to carry a weapon in public. Currently, the only non-South Carolinians who can carry concealed weapons in our state are those who have a permit from one of the nine states with similar requirements. But South Carolinians can’t carry their guns in states whose residents aren’t allowed to carry guns here. So gun toters here want South Carolina to essentially allow anyone licensed in their home state to carry a gun here – even if their states have wide-open gun-carrying laws.
The letter that Grassroots Gun Rights South Carolina is sending out to help drum up support for the bill claims that the bill is “just like North Carolina’s law,” and that 27 states have reciprocity with North Carolina.
Supposedly the bill passed the SC House, but the Senate added a training requirement. Anybody got any further information on this?
June 1st, 2005 at 9:26 am
Odd…I read the dead tree version of the State yesterday and didn’t see that editorial. Haven’t heard anything about this issue, either. Given that there’s only a couple days left in the session, I don’t see this passing.
I’m a WA resident, so to me anything more than filling out a form, getting fingerprinted, and paying a fee is irritating. I worked my way around the SC instruction requirement because I had an Army pistol qual record. Even then, it took a call to the local state Rep to shake the permit loose-the state police were delaying because they usually use driver’s license photos for CCW permits, and I don’t have an SC driver’s license. One gets the feeling that SLED higher ups would rather not give out any permits at all.
June 1st, 2005 at 9:33 am
Oh, and a quick review of SC law shows that SC will not issue permits to non-residents (military personnel on PCS orders to SC are an exception).
So, if you’re a resident of a state that SC doesn’t have reciprocity with (which is a small number) and you travel in SC frequently, you’re SOL.
June 1st, 2005 at 11:27 am
Some states, like Virginia, will not recognize any state that doesn’t have 24/7 permit verification. Unfortunately that means that Virginia permits aren’t good in as many states because we don’t always want to play kissy-face with reciprocity.
What you end up doing is getting multiple permits to get the right combination of states. For instance, my VA permit is good in OH, WV, and KY, but not PA. So to get PA and various other states, I got my NH permit.
Non resident NH permits (by the way) are only $20, take about two-weeks to get, and only require that you mail them a photocopy of your home state permit.
June 1st, 2005 at 12:46 pm
I haven’t checked the reciprocity grids lately, but last time I did Utah’s permit was pretty portable. It’s also very easy to get, and dirt cheap to renew.
June 1st, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Great comments, folks. Thanks!
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:20 am
I’m there now and packing. Packing.org reports reciprocity with TN.