COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – A state Senate subcommittee voted Thursday against approving a bill that would allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry it concealed without a permit. Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, was the only senator to vote for the bill.
“The Second Amendment’s very clear,” he says. “It says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed and putting a price on a permit that you have to have in order to carry a weapon to defend yourself is an infringement. And several other states have passed this. West Virginia just recently passed this. Arizona.”
But other senators on the subcommittee don’t like the idea of just anyone carrying a gun. Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said during the meeting, “It does away with the background check and training and other requirements by allowing anybody in South Carolina to carry.”
Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, said, “If you’re going to carry a gun, I think you need to be trained to carry it.”
Members of the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America were at the hearing to oppose the bill. Elizabeth Crawford told senators, “If passed, this bill would let some dangerous people, and those who may have never fired a gun before, carry a hidden, loaded handgun in public without a permit.”
While the subcommittee voted to carry over that bill, meaning it stays in subcommittee and is unlikely to pass, senators did approve another bill to recognize the CWPs issued in the state of Georgia. South Carolina already has reciprocity with North Carolina.