Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster could sign a bill confirming full Second Amendment rights for his state’s citizens as soon as today.
The bill drops the legal age requirement from 21 to 18, and provides free (state-funded) gun classes to anyone in his state seeking training in the safe and legal use of firearms.
But the bill came at a cost, as compromise is the law of politics. After three failures, the red state’s Republicans were finally able to cobble together a compromise bill that made few happy but got the job done.
In order to obtain the needed votes, the bill added graduated penalties for those violating the state’s firearms laws. Carrying freely in certain venues — courtrooms, government buildings, schools, polling places, and day care centers — is restricted. And carrying a firearm onto school property, into a church, or at private businesses will only be allowed if the school administration, church leaders, or business owners agree.
Part of the struggle was pushback from the Democratic minority, some of whose votes were needed to pass the legislation. Some Democrats complained that the presence of firearms on school grounds could become a “feature of schoolyard brawls,” while others said that 18-year-olds were too emotionally immature to carry a firearm. Democratic Rep. Seth Rose even said that “this bill allows 18-year-olds to walk around with a gun on their hip as if they are a cowboy.”
On the other hand, cooler and more reasonable heads prevailed in passing the bill and sending it to McMaster’s desk for signing today. Republican state Senator Shane Martin was a leading force behind the bill, and rejoiced that his and his colleagues’ efforts were finally rewarded:
Any law-abiding citizen can now exercise their God-given constitutional right to carry their weapon without asking government for permission.… This isn’t about getting a right. It’s about keeping government from taking rights.
My decade-long fight to enable responsible gun owners to carry a firearm without asking permission from the government concluded in a resounding victory today.
Soon, freedom-loving South Carolinians will wake up to a new era of expanded Second Amendment rights in the 29th Constitutional Carry state in the nation.
South Carolina may be the last constitutional-carry state to be added to the list for some time. Since 2010, when just two states enjoyed that freedom, 27 states — all red, with Republican majorities and some with trifectas (governor’s mansion as well) — have confirmed Second Amendment rights for their citizens. Louisiana became the 28th state yesterday, when its governor signed a similar bill into law.
Now the long, uphill slog in blue states begins. With the passage of time, however, the Second Amendment has an ever greater chance of being respected, honored, and allowed even there. Violent crime in blue states will decline, carry among citizens will become commonplace, criminals will discover more attractive victims elsewhere, and young people carrying will prove to be equally as law-abiding as their older neighbors.
There’s another aspect not noted in the media celebrating or denigrating the confirmation of Second Amendment rights: Such laws make it increasingly difficult for gun grabbers to disarm America’s gun owners. Once freedom is enjoyed, it becomes ever more difficult for it to be abrogated and wrestled away.
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