The South Carolina Senate approved legislation to allow adults eligible to carry a firearm to carry it in public, openly or concealed.

The bill passed the Senate by a 28-18 vote.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has pledged to sign it into law.

The Palmetto State is on track to become the 29th state to adopt constitutional carry.

“After holding a special conference to negotiate the final form of the disputed Permitless Carry Bill, the South Carolina House and Senate have both officially adopted the conference report. The South Carolina Permitless Carry Bill, H. 3594, will soon be on Gov. McMaster’s Desk,” the Firearms Policy Coalition wrote.

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WPDE reports:

The South Carolina House approved a conference committee compromise version Tuesday in an 86-33 vote.

In their agreement, the bill would allow adults 18 and older to carry loaded handguns openly with no permit or training.

Guns would still be banned in the same places they are now, including schools, courthouses, and government buildings, and people could still obtain a concealed weapons permit if they wanted.

The bill goes further to ban them at polling places on election day and daycare centers.

It also aims to restrict firearms in bars. Under the bill, if a person is convicted of knowingly carrying a firearm into a business that sells alcoholic liquor, beer, or wine for consumption on the premises is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than two thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than two years. If that person also holds a CWP, the State has the right to revoke it for five years.

The legislation permits open carry in private businesses and churches if allowed by the property owner, WPDE noted.

The Reload writes:

The bill’s passage clears the way for South Carolina to become the 29th state to adopt permitless carry and the 27th since 2010, in what has arguably been the most successful policy push of the modern American gun-rights movement. At the same time, South Carolina is the sole remaining trifecta Republican state without permitless carry, suggesting the policy’s rapid growth could soon be stunted for the foreseeable future.

South Carolina’s status as the lone trifecta Republican holdout among permitless carry states was not for lack of trying by advocates. A permitless carry bill cleared the state’s House in three previous legislative sessions but never cleared the state Senate during that time despite Republicans controlling both chambers.

Policy differences between the two legislative bodies nearly derailed this year’s permitless carry effort as well. While both chambers passed a version of the policy, lawmakers in the state Senate attached amendments creating stiffer penalties for illegal gun possession and designating new sensitive places off-limits to gun carriers in order to get more moderate and swing-district senators on board. The Senate version also included exemptions from the sensitive place restrictions for sitting lawmakers and optional state-financed training courses for prospective gun carriers.

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Last week, Louisiana became the 28th state to adopt constitutional carry.

“Criminals already carry concealed firearms without regard for the law. Constitutional Carry simply puts law-abiding citizens on equal footing,” Republican Gov. Jeff Landry wrote.

 

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