Transplanted Yankee here of 16 years, love this state and its values.
We are likely to have an open carry law within the next couple of months. The bill is working its way through the legislature now. I have mixed feeling about this.
on the one hand this states pro 2nd A laws are terrific and I hope it stays this way.
I am a little nervous about this new law. In today political climate everybody is buying guns. Many for the first time, Bring them home with little or no training and think they are now all set. Wrong. I suspect many new owners are not aware of the circumstances needed to justify a defensive shooting (guy breaking into my car I’ll smoke his butt) very wrong. So many new new gun owners with minimal training is scary and now they can open carry. Don’t know if there are training requirements to open carry.
I hope things go well if and when this law takes affect.
@thisisitij I can understand your wariness, but I think the legislators are addressing this. I have recently read about additions to the CWP training course addressing retention, open carry, etc. While I personally prefer concealed carry for myself, I am all for us as a state recognizing the importance of an openly armed society. An armed society is a polite society.
As for classes, I will let @SuperPredator reply, as he is an FFL and offers training.
I understand your hesitation. Keep in mind that about 20 other states already have legalized open carry without any of the issues you’re concerned about. Already 8/10 people you come across are potentially carry concealed lawfully (not counting the masses who are doing it unlawfully). Being able to carry openly really changes very little in that relation. As for training, we can all agree that the standards for getting a CWP is not proper training anyway.
If nothing else, legalization of open carry reverses a prohibition created and justified in the jim crow era due to ignorance, and i think we can all agree that getting rid of that is a good thing.
Regardless of the reasons why, we should all strive for less of the government telling us which freedoms we can have and should be able to exercise. Land of the free and all that.
me personally, i love the open carry / constitutional carry being available. I however probably will not carry openly just to do it. I would be more likely to open carry when im loaded up to go to the range, or go to the hunting club or what not than i would just to open carry for the sake of open carry. Granted i’ve had my CWP for manay many years now, and i’ve got the opinion that while being concealed it makes me less of a target than being open carried.
The point of the open carry would allow me to cover my ass in case i got lazy or was accidentially uncovered, or printed too much or w hat have you. I’ve open carried only once in my life on purpose. It was about 6 or so years ago when my brother was station in Camp LeJune NC as a marine, and they have open carry there so i did. I felt awkward about it for a little while, but after about an hour or two doing it, it finally started to feel natural. This to me also helped lmake me understand that the average criminal will not be open carrying anyways, they will be concealed illegally and having the open carry on you , only makes you the spot light guy to watch by them if they are going to do anything nefarious. That is a good thing though because it does also mean that they are much less likely to do anything unless they are concealed carry to begin with.
I’m from Ohio but I’ve lived in South Carolina since 1993. My wife and I bought our first guns in December and then realized people like us are partly responsible for the ammo shortage. Sorry! But as new gun owners, we are as by-the-book as can be. Our son took us shooting once and then we went straight to CWP class for the training. One thing I’ve noticed on social media is that there are in fact some gun owners who are of a ridiculous temperament to be gun owners. They come off like Barney Fife who can’t wait to put that bullet in his gun and confront bad guys. But that’s an entirely separate issue from open carry. I don’t routinely conceal carry and will open carry even less. But I’d sure like the right to do so if I want to. I hope it happens.
Agreed. Protect yourself from these types the same way you protect yourself from criminal threats. It may be zealousness and false bravado, but that attitude and personality existed before they were armed or started carrying.
If someone is dangerous with a gun, they’re dangerous without one.
Freedom, and responsibility can be scary, but the alternative is much worse. There is no such thing as a safe society even though some states have fooled themselves into thinking there is.
Some people are just dumb, plain and simple. They shouldn’t be allowed to drive a car, operate a chainsaw or cut their own meat but they walk among us and restricting the rifgts of all will not cure their problem.
All of the objections to open carry listed here are fine as long as they are personal recommendations. The moment things are legally mandated, e.g. open carry banned as it is today, we are all less free.
I don’t want to see the one guy who has a good reason to open carry, or is just printing, legally prevented from doing what he should be free to do.
I have concealed carry for many years in several states. I myself wouldn’t open carry because I don’t want anyone to know I have a weapon. The value of surprise in a gun fight can be the difference in the out come. I do like the ide of not being in trouble for accidental showing of my gun or some one calling the police because they saw someone with a gun.
That’s true. Concealed carry only works if its concealed. If constitutional carry is allowed in SC,
its not like I would carry to the Waffle House. But in the event that someone sees my gun I will be ok.
I am very excited for this law. I am not a proponent of open carry. I believe it draws unwanted and unneeded attention. I don’t want everyone staring at me because I have a gun on my hip. I want this to pass because I live in fear that while carrying concealed I will inadvertantly expose my firearm while stretching or whatever. If someone wants to be a douche they could call the police and have you arrested or even worse try and confront you themselves. This law would hopefully stop that from being the case. I know concealed carry means concealed but sometimes life happens and things are different than you want them to be.
First off, welcome to the OP to yalls new home in beautiful SC. Smart move imho. I moved down to NC in 1984 from Va. and am still regarded as a damn yankee lol, so enjoy. We have open carry in NC and it is considered a rather unneighborly practice by many, but it is a complete non issue. We are almost all packing concealed anyway.
As you read people’s comments you will see mixed feelings of the concealed/open carry. I believe that it should be the individuals right to decide if he/she what’s to conceal carry or open carry. If you live it certain states, seeing someone with a gun in a holster that doesn’t look like a threat shouldn’t be a problem. Situational awareness, pay attention.
We have open carry in VA (for now) and it isn’t really an issue. Occasionally I’ll see somebody OC’ing, but it’s not like the old west. I only CC, except when I’m on the way to the range. But not everybody wants to go through the trouble of the extra scrutiny, or wants to to be “put on a list” and still want to exercise their rights. Every law abiding citizen should have the option.
The main thing is that, when you carry, you now have to be more aware of private businesses and public buildings where guns are not allowed. And, as was mentioned, when you OC, just about everybody knows it. CC is almost always a better option.
The only time I ever got nervous about OC is when I saw a gang banger looking dude OC’ing in a mall food court. Not a big deal, but I just sat my family a little farther away and kept a sharp eye, because I wasn’t sure if he felt he needed it and would possibly get ambushed there in the mall by some rivals or some such.
Yea people need training as far as how the law works because you could end up in jail for one miss deed training is probably the most important thing you can do when it comes to carrying a hand gun. It’s very complex so work on watching as many training videos you can if there’s not a class around it’s one of the most important things to do
Darkcorner, you’re correct about that. I asked that exact question to an attorney who handles self defense cases and he said that printing isn’t addressed in our statutes.
But as new gun owners, we are as by-the-book as can be. Our son took us shooting once and then we went straight to CWP class for the training. One thing I’ve noticed on social media is that there are in fact some gun owners who are of a ridiculous temperament to be gun owners. They come off like Barney Fife who can’t wait to put that bullet in his gun and confront bad guys. But that’s an entirely separate issue from open carry. I don’t routinely conceal carry and will open carry even less. But I’d sure like the right to do so if I want to. I hope it happens.
