By Paul Hyde
South Carolina lawmakers were recklessly determined to approve permit-less carry this year, even though it’s likely to increase gun violence in our state.
At the very least, it won’t help reduce our state’s tragically high rate of gun deaths.
For a moment, it seemed like permit-less carry might fail over disagreements between the state House and state Senate.
In the end, however, the two bodies resolved differences, joined hands like Thelma and Louise, and drove off a cliff, maybe whooping as they flew.
They rejected reason, evidence and common sense.
They also defied local and state law enforcement officials who earlier had opposed permit-less carry.
The bill quickly moved to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk, and he signed it.
That immediately allowed South Carolinians 18 and over who can legally buy a handgun to carry it without a permit and without training of any sort, according to reporting by the S.C. Daily Gazette’s Skylar Laird.
South Carolina became the 29th state to allow permit-less carry, following the lead of the most violence-ridden states in the nation.
Lawmakers left the age for permit-less carry at the legal age to buy a gun in South Carolina: 18. An 18-year-old can’t buy a beer but can purchase and now carry a gun in public.
Meanwhile, gun violence remains the leading cause of death for American children.
More guns in public will mean more gun violence in South Carolina.
Gas on a fire
Our state already has the 11th highest gun death rate in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s 2021 data, the latest available.
Permit-less carry only tosses gas on a fire.
In an average year, 1,044 people die and 2,358 are wounded by guns in South Carolina, according to the gun safety group Everytown. Our state has the sixth-highest gun violence rate in the nation.
“When we loosen restrictions on carrying guns in public or eliminate the permitting process all together, all reputable studies show that this is extremely bad for public safety,” said Kelly Drane, research director with Giffords, a gun safety group. “We see increases in violent crimes, increases in firearm homicides, and increases in nonfatal shootings.”
The Top 10 states with the highest gun death rates in the nation, with the exception of New Mexico, all allow permit-less carry.
The states with the lowest gun death rates in the nation, meanwhile, mostly prohibit permit-less carry.
It’s not hard to see a tragic pattern here: More guns and looser restrictions mean more gun violence.
Law enforcement officials generally oppose permit-less carry because it’s often impossible to know whether someone with a gun in public has bad intent or not. Officer-involved shootings also increase in states with permit-less carry laws.
While state lawmakers were debating permit-less carry, a far-right group had been “pummeling GOP opponents of permit-less carry with phone calls and fliers,” according to the Gazette’s Seanna Adcox.
But lawmakers have the responsibility to consider facts and common sense as well.
Supporters of permit-less carry refer to it as “constitutional carry,” though there’s nothing in the Constitution about allowing young, untrained people to carry a gun in public.
A stark irony is that gun advocates themselves know that training is needed to safely operate, clean and store a deadly weapon.
A top concern about permit-less carry is not only that homicides will increase but accidents will, as well: such as the 2019 incident where a father accidentally shot and killed his 11-year-old daughter in Easley.
Violent crime increases
A 2022 study found that permit-less carry laws can substantially increase homicides and firearm violence. A 2019 study concluded that permit-less carry was associated with up to a 15% increase in violent crime rates a decade after implementation.
Mississippi has had a permit-less carry law in place since 2015 and has the highest rate of gun deaths in the nation, according to the CDC. In that state, gun homicides increased 129 percent from 2011 to 2020.
Wyoming has had permit-less carry on the books since 2011, and that state has the fifth highest rate of gun deaths in the nation. Gun mortality increased 54 percent in Wyoming between 2011 to 2020.
Granted, the new South Carolina law includes a few positive reforms. It enhances penalties for illegal gun use. It also offers free training classes for gun owners but does not mandate them.
We should not be loosening gun restrictions but tightening them up, such as closing the Charleston loophole, mandating universal background checks, enacting red-flag laws and requiring the safe storage of guns.
Instead, we’re moving in the wrong direction. Permit-less carry, a colossal self-inflicted wound for South Carolina, makes us all less safe.
Paul Hyde is a longtime journalist and teacher in the Upstate. He worked 18 years for the Greenville News as a columnist, editorial writer, education reporter and arts writer. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Clemson and Harvard universities. He has written for the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and USA Today, among other publications. He currently is a regular contributor to the Greenville Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Classical Voice North America.
