Open Carry Killed In South Carolina
BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 10 months ago
Reported by Mike Vanderboegh a while back, open carry is defeated in South Carolina.
A bill that would allow South Carolinians to carry guns openly or concealed without first receiving the State’s sanction through a permit was killed by Republicans. It failed to advance out of the State’s Judiciary Committee — despite a large Republican majority — under strong opposition from Republican Senator Larry Martin.
The bill is called Constitutional Carry. Backers say its premise is based on the fact that the 2nd Amendment is the only permit needed to carry a weapon.
Understanding the Republican statist position opposing the bill requires following tortured logic. It was best described by Martin himself in response to a constituent who asked him to vote to advance the bill, as reported by BenSwan.com.
“If the 2nd amendment has been as you interpret it, why hasn’t SC law reflected that for the last 140 years? I’m sorry but you are describing an ‘unlimited’ right that has never been the case with the 2nd Amendment. My view of the 2nd Amendment has always been the right to own guns and keep them in our homes, business, and property and not to wear a gun whenever to wherever I pleased.”
He just thinks that because he is a communist. Comments at Mike’s place seem to indicate that it was the tourism lobby in Charleston that defeated the bill. I make no claims to knowing the real story behind the bill’s demise. But one thing is certain – Senator Larry Martin of Pickens is either the ring leader or a stooge and tool. In any case, he is now the target.
Gregory Smith observes “South Carolina has a pro-gun governor and an anti-gun Senate. This defeat is shameful, this is the work of self-hating Southerners, scalawags that would rather kiss the carpetbaggers than pass pro-gun laws … I believe there’s gonna be political hell in South Carolina. I want to know who are the 17 bastards that voted against the 2nd Amendment, are any of them Republican? If so then it’s time to excommunicate them from public office.”
I think the retribution needs to be greater than that. Mr. Martin needs to feel uncomfortable even being out in public. He has now declared himself to be an enemy of the people. And oh, by the way, as to the LEOs who helped to kill the bill, you are also an enemy of the people.
On February 25, 2014 at 8:23 am, Nosmo King said:
According to the South Carolina Senate website
(http://www.scstatehouse.gov/committee.php?chamber=S) this is a list of
Judiciary Committee members:
Martin, Larry A., Chairman
Rankin, Luke A.
Hutto, C. Bradley
Malloy, Gerald
Sheheen, Vincent A.
Campsen, George E. “Chip”, III
Massey, A. Shane
Bright, Lee
Coleman, Creighton B.
Martin, Shane R.
Scott, John L., Jr.
Gregory, Chauncey K.
Allen, Karl B.
Bennett, Sean
Corbin, Thomas D. “Tom”
Hembree, Greg
Johnson, Kevin L.
McElveen, J. Thomas, III
Shealy, Katrina Frye
Thurmond, Paul
Turner, Ross
Young, Tom, Jr.
Kimpson, Marlon E.
According
to an email from my SC state Senator (Tom Corbin), only he, Shane
Martin , Lee Bright , and Kevin Bryant. voted in favor of SB115. If you
go to that page, under “Senate Standing Committees” and select
“Judiciary” it will open the above, each name with a hyperlink to that
senator’s district information.
According to Corbin, there were 4
votes in favor, 17 against; there are 23 members of the Judiciary
Committee, so 2 did not vote at all. I do not know who those 2 are or
why they did not vote, but Corbin referred me to Larry Martin’s office –
803-212-6610
– when I requested that info.
If
you live in SC and don’t know who your senator is, on the page listing
“Senate Standing Committees” on the left side is a “Find Your
Legislator” link.
There is a blog advertising itself as
“scgunblog” – https://scgunblog.wordpress.com/ – don’t know who writes
it, and it seems to be updated only sporadically, but it has more info on the SB 115 discussion.
I’d suggest that unless your SC state senator is one of the 4 who voted in favor of SB 115 that you devote some energy to replacing your senator with a candidate who would support it in the next session. And, it would not hurt to go beyond your SC senatorial district and knock on some doors in adjacent districts. State senate races are small beans, politically, and frequently decided by only a couple hundred votes. If you are represented by a Senator who voted against SB 115 might the gun shops and shooting ranges in your district be interested in letting their customers and members know that? To succeed in the next legislative session we do not have to replace all no-voting senators, only enough to get the point across to the others. If that turns out to be all 17 who voted against, so much the better.
On February 25, 2014 at 9:25 am, Paul B said:
the state is by definition the enemy of the people. Any industry that lives on enforced payments should be afraid of the people from whom the payments are extracted from.
Sooner they know that the sooner this madness will cease.
On February 25, 2014 at 9:51 am, Gregory Smith said:
I’m honored that you would quote me. I don’t know what could be a greater retribution, having them tarred and feathered is not legal anymore, LOL. Either way, I invite you to reserve a pro-gun t-shirt at http://teespring.com/armed-liberty. Your paypal won’t be charged unless a minimum of 10 are sold. I hate peddling things here, but freedom isn’t free, and neither is ammo.
On February 25, 2014 at 11:28 am, Ned Weatherby said:
So – the controlled opposition of the Hegelian dialectic – the Republicans – once again chose tyranny over liberty for the mundanes.
This is my shocked face…
On February 28, 2014 at 7:24 am, teapartydoc said:
There are no enemies on the right, but plenty on the left–in your own party.
On March 14, 2014 at 11:26 pm, PavePusher said:
It matters not whether the boot on your neck is a left boot or a right boot….