S109, S127, & S638 will be heard in the full Senate Judiciary committee Tuesday afternoon, April 25, 2023. The meeting is scheduled for 3 PM or 15 minutes after the Senate adjourns, whichever is later. The Judiciary Committee meeting will be in Room 308 of the Gressette Building at the South Carolina Statehouse. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/agendas/125s13325.pdf
Please read through these bills. S109 is the permitless carry/constitutional carry bill in the Senate (there were 3 total filed this year). This is a different bill from H3594 that already passed the House and was sent to the Senate for consideration in February.
S127 would amend who can legally possess a pistol in South Carolina. Although it may look good on the surface to many, note that there is NO EXCEPTION carved out for persons under 18 using the pistol for self-defense in their own homes.
S638 would establish a Voluntary Do-Not-Sell Firearms List to be maintained by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and would make it against the law for a licensed dealer to sell to someone on the list. Again, while this may "sound good", there are multiple issues with this bill. The only way for this to be adhered to by licensed firearms dealers in South Carolina would be for this information to be entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which is maintained by the FBI. There is currently no requirement for the FBI to enter this information into NICS. Under this bill, SLED would have 24 hours to put the person on the list upon receipt of the application, but they have to wait at least 14 days before the person can be removed upon request of the applicant! There is no mention of how to remove the information from NICS. Since this is a "voluntary" list and only the applicant can put themselves on the list, why not just NOT buy a gun? This seems like a lot of work for SLED for what exactly?
Please, contact the Senators on the Judiciary Committee & urge them to PASS S109 and REJECT S127 & S638.
SD 25 Shane Massey - (803) 212-6330
SD 43 Chip Campsen - (803) 212-6340
SD 15 Wes Climer - (803) 212-6230
SD 2 Rex Rice - (803) 212-6116
SD 41 Sandy Senn - (803) 212-6116
SD 12 Scott Talley - (803) 212-6048
SD 3 Richard Cash - (803) 212-6124
SD 6 Dwight Loftis - (803) 212-6100
SD 44 Brian Adams - 803-212-6056
SD 10 Billy Garrett - 803-212-6032
SD 27 Penry Gustafson - 803-212-6040
SD 16 Michael Johnson - 803-212-6008
SD 11 Josh Kimbrell - 803-212-6108
SD 33 Luke Rankin - (803) 212-6610
SD 31 Mike Reichenbach - (803) 212-6016