South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee Stalls Open Carry Bill
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 7 months ago
News.
The chances of South Carolina joining most other states allowing licensed people to openly carry pistols and not hide them under a jacket dimmed Tuesday as a small group of senators didn’t find time to vote on a House-passed bill.
A Senate subcommittee set a 90-minute deadline to hear testimony about the open carry bill. Several senators held long conversations with witnesses and when the hour-and-a-half was up, the subcommittee adjourned without taking a vote and with several other witnesses waiting to speak online.
Sen. Tom Young, a Republican from Aiken, said he would hold another hearing “as soon as possible,” but with eight days left in the General Assembly’s regular session, it seems doubtful the bill can make it through the subcommittee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate.
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During the House subcommittee hearing on the open carry bill, lawmakers set a three-minute timer for witnesses and asked almost no questions.
The Senate hearing Tuesday meandered a bit more. Senators asked almost every witness a question and former State Law Enforcement Chief Robert Stewart spent about 30 minutes telling them why he opposed open carry.
So there you go. They limited the pro-speakers to 3 minutes, let a cop speak for half an hour, chatted some and then walked out without so much as a how do you do?
That’s the sort of consideration they give their constituency. Their names are here. Luke Rankin presides. We suspected he was a controller, and he is.
With the influx of foreign voters into S.C., this may be the last, greatest opportunity to pass open carry in S.C. Apparently no gun owner in S.C. cares about this enough.
I’ll just file this one under gun control. I guess South Carolinians are okay with it.
On April 29, 2021 at 2:10 pm, Marshall said:
Herschell,
I do care and did contact Rankin and my local senator about this law. It looks like we have a bunch of senators that will need to be primaried and removed as obstacles to open carry. Rankin is obviously the leader of this run-out-the-clock fiasco and will be a main target for removal. I’ll use his contact page to leave another message informing him of my disappointment in his performance and need for him to resign or be voted out.
Marshall