Bypassed by GOP backers of open carry, law enforcement and allies go on offense
Fueled by a Republican-controlled state Legislature sprinting through legislation after a year of work lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, gun control advocacy groups are ramping up efforts to quash a proposal that would let legal gun owners carry their weapons openly.
In doing so, they are partnering with faith leaders, doctors, law enforcement and their allies, hoping that those groups with acute understanding of gun safety and gun violence will be enough to sway lawmakers to kill a bill that has passed the House and now resides in the Senate, where it has until the end of the 2022 legislative session to pass.
But this year, with fewer than two months left of official legislative work in Columbia, advocates are hopeful that one group in particular will break through the Republican log jam and derail the bill: law enforcement.
The law enforcement lobby in South Carolina has a louder voice than most. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers usually yield to its influence, which in years past has helped to stave off controversial proposals, from loosening gun restrictions to more progressive efforts to allow medical marijuana use.
Yet the debate over the controversial open carry bill — and subsequent efforts to expand the right to carry guns more broadly — has pitted some in law enforcement against the very lawmakers they have leaned on in a debate split between protecting law enforcement and the public and further expanding Second Amendment rights.
And opponents of the bill say it simply goes back to party politics ahead of a 2022 election when every one of the 124 members of the state House is up for reelection, and Gov. Henry McMaster — who has signaled he will back the open carry bill — is, too.
“Whatever slice of red meat can be offered up to primary voters, that’s going to be the flavor of the day,” said former Republican state Rep. Gary Clary, a former circuit court judge from Pickens County.
After the March mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder — cities in states that have varying open carry laws — advocates in favor of tighter gun restrictions say they have seen an uptick in momentum for their cause, including from law enforcement who oppose expanding gun laws that would potentially pit law enforcement against the public.
“America has a gun violence problem, and we probably need to be doing more to protect people than making the situation worse,” said Jackie Shelley, chapter leader of Moms Demand Action South Carolina. “This legislative cycle just feels different because we have so many people coming to us. Now we have faith leaders who are calling us up and asking what can I do, police officers saying this is insane, how can I help. It’s different now. It’s like people in the community have really just gotten to their tipping point.”
Similarly, Arm-in-Arm, a Charleston-based group formed after the Charleston Mother Emanuel AME mass shooting in 2015, has launched an aggressive, mostly digital ad campaign using the voices of law enforcement, gun owners and doctors to call on lawmakers to vote “No” on the open carry bill, H. 3094. That is on top of their call, email and letter-writing campaign, enlisting South Carolinians to reach out to legislators on their own.
“We’re continuing to grow a list of law enforcement, medical and business folks concerned about the issue and adamant that as a group they want their voices heard,” said Meghan Alexander, Arm-in-Arm founder and board member, who hails from a gun-owning family, but believes there should be limits on carrying firearms.
Those groups will have an uphill battle at the State House.
The so-called “open carry with training bill” has already passed the House and could soon get a hearing in the state Senate — a Republican-led chamber that has steadily pushed through looser gun restriction bills in recent years and where senators acknowledge there may be enough votes this go-around to pass open carry and send it to the governor for his signature.
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat who leads the chamber’s 16 Democrats outnumbered by the Republican’s 30 members, said on “Bourbon in the Backroom,” a podcast hosted by two former Democratic state senators, that he believes “Republicans probably have the votes to take it up.”
The question for senators is when.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told The State he hopes the Senate will address the bill this year.
“There’s still some work that needs to be done, still a number of issues that we’re going to be dealing with,” said Massey, including in the priority list the state budget the Senate will pass toward the end of April. “I’m hopeful. It will be tough, it will be tight.”
Law enforcement lobby
Two law enforcement groups in South Carolina have weighed in on the open carry bill but taken different positions.
Though the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association has taken a neutral position on the bill, the South Carolina Police Chief’s Association has not.
Association President Kelvin Washington, chief of police for the city of Darlington, said the group does not support the bill.
“We have a number of concerns about it, primarily officers responding to calls of people with weapons. It poses a problem for us in determining if this person is legal to carry or not,” Washington told The State. “We’re going to have to somehow determine during the course of that response and during the course of that encounter with that person whether or not they are legal or within their legal rights to have those weapons.”
The Sheriff’s Association did send a letter to lawmakers discouraging passage of a constitutional carry measure in the House that would not require a South Carolina gun owner to have a permit to carry a firearm whether concealed or open.
“We believe the current CWP process strikes a careful balance between the exercise of Second Amendment rights and public safety and officer safety,” wrote Sheriff’s Association executive director Jarrod Bruder, referring to the state’s concealed weapon permit.
The Police Chief’s Association has allies.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott and Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook have both expressed concerns with the bill. So has Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds.
And the most outspoken and arguably the most influential critic is Mark Keel, chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, a state agency that holds sizeable lobbying influence over lawmakers and the governor.
Keel said he is most concerned about what open carry will do to interactions between police and gun owners.
“I’m concerned it’s going to create more possibly tragic interactions with law enforcement and the public and we’re not having that right now with our CWP statute,” Keel said. “And I’m concerned that the open carry (bill) will create more of those type of situations” that put law enforcement in direct conflict with the public, he said.
South Carolina has issued more than 582,000 concealed weapons permits — a regulation with training that Keel said is envied across the country. But granting gun owners access to openly display their weapons, Keel said, could add a danger and threat to the public and to law enforcement who won’t be able to tell whether someone has a permit to carry.
“We’re not making them hang their CWP card around their neck like a lanyard,” he said.
Not every law enforcement official shares the same view.
Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan in a recent Facebook post questioned the need for new gun regulations in response to questions about his stance on gun control after the shooting deaths of 10 people, including a police officer, at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store.
“My stance is simple. I am against any law that infringes a law abiding citizen’s right to possess a firearm. Nothing should hinder a law abiding citizen from exercising their right to protect themself,” Boan wrote.
Asked to respond, Keel said, like him, Boan is a proud supporter of the Second Amendment and supports people’s right to bear arms. But Keel said while South Carolina has a lot of laws on the books, there are places “where we need a couple of extra laws to help” law enforcement. Consider, he said, mirroring South Carolina’s felony in possession law to the federal government’s — a gap, he said, that allows people to own guns even with a felony.
“I would love to see our law mirror the federal statute,” Keel said.
Policing politics
Many wonder whether law enforcement will carry the weight needed to shove the bill back on the shelf.
Republicans have controlled the Legislature for years. But their control was bolstered after November, when Republicans flipped five legislative seats and elected new Republicans more vocal about Second Amendment support.
Former state Rep. Clary watched the House pass open carry, saying he was not surprised.
The former judge of more than a decade who oversaw a dozen death penalty cases and others involving guns, said election makeup changes have shifted the focus away from policy and onto primaries.
“They’re being placed in a really untenable position. It’s not something that they want to vote on but something that they have to vote green on,” said Clary, who said he has heard concern from some of his former Republican colleagues over moves to pass open and constitutional carry. “I feel for my colleagues who are there that are like me, they believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in all of our constitutional amendments, but some members only want to believe in the ones that suit them.”
Leaders were successful in one way in the House, which tacked on a provision to the open carry legislation that would further restrict where a gun owner could open carry by letting counties and cities ban open carry at certain permitted events, such as demonstrations and festivals.
Keel said while the amendment makes the bill better, it doesn’t change his stance on the open carry legislation.
Meanwhile, many lawmakers, including Republican Senate leader Massey, do not support completely eliminating the state’s weapons permit entirely, meaning a constitutional carry measure would be less likely to become law.
Massey told The State that law enforcement still holds sway over the Legislature.
That does not, however, always mean the party’s rank-and-file, eager to bring home a conservative win, will be persuaded though, Massey said, mentioning the talking point that 45 other states have an open carry law. Critics of that argument say every law is different, though.
“There are a number of us very close to law enforcement and who really value their opinion on this and lots of other issues,” Massey said. “If Chief Keel speaks, people are going to listen.”
Keel has been clear where he stands.
“I just have a problem with open carry, period,” he said.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
