Legislative Alert in SC

18 March 2008
“Thank you!” to all of you who emailed and called the senators representing your county just as we asked you to do yesterday in the GrassRoots GunRights Action Alert on H. 3212.

Congratulations! Your voices were heard! But, ...

There is both good news and bad news. And, you will need to take action once again if you want to protect your rights.

First, the good news.

Due to your emails and phone calls, the SC Senate amended H. 3212 again. The new amendment makes one important change - it deletes the mandate that other states must perform federal background checks to satisfy SC CWP reciprocity requirements. This change means SC should not lose any reciprocity agreements as we would have done if the Knotts/Anderson amendment had passed. But, we will not gain any states either.

Now, the bad news.

H. 3212 started out as CWP recognition bill, which means SC would recognize CWP permits from other states without need of a reciprocity agreement between SC and another state. This would have allowed SC CWP holders to carry in 30+ states, including Georgia and Florida. But, unfortunately, the Senate changed H. 3212 into a CWP reciprocity bill instead of the CWP recognition bill that came out of the House, which means SC and another state must legally agree to honor each other's CWP before we can carry elsewhere.

The Senate's amendments to H. 3212 have created new problems due to the Senate's not thinking of all the consequences of the changes they are making.

If SC is going to remain a CWP reciprocity state instead of a CWP recognition state, then someone needs to be legally responsible for determining and entering into CWP reciprocity agreements with other states. Current law charges SLED with determining which states satisfy the requirements for CWP reciprocity. The Senate amendments to H. 3212 delete SLED's responsibility to do this. The Senate amendments also fail to legally charge anyone else with determining which states satisfy the CWP reciprocity requirements. This is a serious failing on the Senate's part.

When no one is legally charged with doing something, that something does not get done. We can't get SLED to do a good job of keeping track of CWP reciprocity agreements now, even though SLED is legally charged with doing so. Imagine how bad things will get when no one is legally charged with doing this job. CWP reciprocity agreements will not get made if no one is legally charged with the responsibility of making them. The Senate needs to fix this problem they created.

The Senate also failed to change the legal definition of a course of “training,” which means that H. 3212 still requires both SC and other states to mandate an eight (8) hour minimum class to satisfy CWP reciprocity requirements. Thus, the Senate changes - or failures to make changes - can not increase the number of states eligible for reciprocity with SC.

As last amended on Tuesday, March 18, H. 3212 now only restates existing CWP law - but with one very important difference. Instead of saying a CWP reciprocity agreement can only be entered into with a state which has CWP issuance standards equal to or greater than SC standards (which are an 8 hour class, state and federal fingerprint review, and local background check), H. 3212 would change the law to now say a CWP reciprocity agreement can only be entered into with a state which has CWP issuance standards that require an 8 hour class, state and federal fingerprint review, and local background check. As you can see, this is exactly the same thing. So, why bother to make such a worthless change?

As pointed out in the GrassRoots Action Alert yesterday, this worthless change is a necessary first step before changing the SC CWP law to require re-training every four years without also destroying all existing CWP reciprocity agreements. There is no other reason for making these worthless changes proposed by the Senate. Make no mistake, the real reason for the Senate changes is to require CWP re-training in the future.

BOTTOM LINE:

As currently drafted and amended by the Senate, H. 3212 is worthless at best and is the first step towards CWP re-training every four years at worst.

The Senate needs to amend H. 3212 back to the CWP recognition bill that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and stop trying to turn H. 3212 into a CWP reciprocity bill.

Click to expand...

States that currently recognize South Carolina’s concealed weapons permit include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.

The bill passed today would expand the states recognizing South Carolina’s concealed weapons permit to include: Colorado, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska and Nevada.

South Carolina currently recognizes the concealed weapons permits of the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee and Wyoming.

The Senate action will expand that list to include: Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. A reciprocity agreement with West Virginia is pending.
Link Removed

Click to expand...