Constitutional Carry: What are the 2024 Changes to South Carolina’s Open Carry Firearm Laws?
South Carolina’s “Constitutional Carry” Bill, H. 3594, was passed this year and signed into law on March 7, 2024.
It allows anyone not otherwise prohibited (due to criminal convictions, for example) to carry a concealed firearm without a permit or training requirements.
In this article, we will discuss what the 2024 amendments to SC gun laws mean for SC residents, including:
- What “constitutional carry” means,
- Where you can legally carry a handgun in South Carolina, and
- Other 2024 changes to SC’s gun laws.
“Constitutional Carry” in SC: What Does It Mean?
“Constitutional carry” is the idea that the Second Amendment, which says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” protects our right to carry a concealed handgun anywhere without a permit or firearms training requirement.
Under SC’s new 2024 gun laws, any legal resident who is 18 or older and can legally possess a firearm can now carry a firearm, concealed or openly, except in restricted areas like jails and courthouses, without a concealed weapon permit (CWP).
To accomplish this, the Constitutional Carry Bill repealed SC Code § 16-23-460 (which criminalized carrying a concealed weapon without a permit), SC Code § 23-31-225 (which criminalized carrying a gun into someone else’s home without permission if you had a CWP), and SC Code § 23-31-230 (which authorized carrying a firearm to and from a person’s vehicle without a CWP).
Where Can You Carry a Gun in South Carolina?
The list of restricted areas, like public buildings or private businesses with posted signage, has not changed and will be found in SC Code § 16-23-20.
Restricted areas include:
- Detention centers, prisons, and police departments,
- Courthouses and other publicly owned buildings,
- Polling places on election days,
- Offices or meeting places for counties, municipalities, school districts, or special purpose districts,
- School or college athletic events, unless they are related to firearms,
- Daycares and preschools,
- Anywhere federal law prohibits the carrying of a firearm,
- Hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices,
- Churches, unless you have permission to carry,
- Someone else’s home unless you have permission to carry or
- Any place “clearly marked with a sign prohibiting the carrying of a concealable weapon on the premises in compliance with Section 23-31-235.”
You can carry a concealed firearm on school property if the school property is leased by a church for church services or official church activities if you have permission to carry, and if no students are present for curricular or extracurricular school-sponsored activities.
Where Can You Carry a Gun in Your Car in SC?
There are no restrictions as to where a firearm can be stored inside a vehicle unless you are on school property.
Under the previous law, if you did not have a CWP, you were required to store your gun in a secured glovebox, center console, trunk, or container in the luggage compartment. Under the new 2024 constitutional carry law, you can put your gun on the dashboard, on the seat, under the seat, in your pocket, or wherever you like.
If you are on “any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by a private or public school, college, university, technical college, other post-secondary institution, or in any publicly owned building,” any gun in your vehicle must be “secured in a closed glove compartment, closed console, closed trunk, or in a closed container secured by an integral fastener and transported in the luggage compartment of the vehicle.”
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What Other Changes to Open Carry Laws in SC are in the Constitutional Carry Law?
Other changes in the 2024 Constitutional Carry Law include a provision for expungement of unlawful carry convictions, rules for lost and stolen firearms, firearm safety training classes, increased penalties for unlawful carry, and probable cause determinations by officers who see openly carried firearms.
Police Cannot Search, Detain, or Arrest a Person for Openly Carrying a Firearm in SC
The 2024 gun law amendments include a provision that states law enforcement cannot search, detain, or arrest a person solely because the officer sees the person openly carrying a firearm and that police officers can only stop and search a person when there is “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.”
Expungement of Unlawful Carry Convictions
“A first offense for unlawful possession of a firearm or weapon carrying a penalty of not more than one year or a fine of one thousand dollars, or both” can now be expunged after three years under the amended SC Code § 22-5-910.
Suppose you were previously convicted of unlawful possession of a handgun. In that case, you can get the conviction expunged if you apply within five years of the date the Constitutional Carry Law passed (March 7, 2029, is the deadline).
Lost and Stolen Firearms
SC’s Constitutional Carry Law requires gun owners to report that a firearm has been lost or stolen within ten days of the discovery.
Also, suppose someone finds a firearm and turns it in. In that case, the police department must return it to the finder 90 days after publication if the finder “pays all advertising and other costs incidental to returning the handgun,” unless the finder is prohibited from possessing or receiving a handgun under state or federal law.
Increased Penalties for Illegal Use/Possession of a Firearm in SC
There are going to be increased penalties for unlawful possession of a firearm under the amended SC Code § 16-23-50, which creates:
- A misdemeanor that carries up to one year in prison for a first offense,
- A misdemeanor that carries up to three years in prison for a second offense,
- A felony that carries up to five years in prison for a third or greater offense.
Firearm Training Program/Gun Safety Classes
Going forward, the SC Law Enforcement Division will develop a firearm training program for the public and a list of certified instructors will be made available once funding is allocated—the training is no longer required to carry a handgun, and there should also no longer be a fee for the classes.
We are all responsible for handling firearms safely and responsibly, whether for personal safety or sporting activities. Improper, illegal, or negligent use of firearms may result in criminal arrest and civil liability. Make sure you remove firearms from your vehicles and store them securely in your home.
Although there is no legal requirement to get training before you carry a gun in South Carolina, you should be responsible and attend formal training on firearm safety, marksmanship, gun laws, and the tactical use of firearms in self-defense, including shoot/don’t shoot scenarios.
Training is available through gun stores, sportsman groups, DNR, the NRA, national concealed carry associations, and CWP insurance plans. Many of these groups maintain websites and social media pages with extensive resources.