More than a thousand people around South Carolina are facing charges for gun crimes that are no longer illegal since Gov. Henry McMaster signed the permitless carry bill into law on March 7.
The new law, dubbed “constitutional carry" by supporters, wiped out swaths of prior gun laws in the state.
Adults who are legally allowed to buy a handgun can carry it in public without undergoing training to get a concealed weapons permit, and they don’t need to have the permit on them while carrying. The law also made it legal to store a gun in a gym bag or backpack in a car or even have it lying on the passenger seat.
Before the law was signed, unlawful possession was one of the most common charges in South Carolina. It was the top recurring charge in Charleston County, according to a report from the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
The permitless carry law created a process for those who were convicted of a gun crime that became legal March 7 to expunge that conviction from their record.
But the law’s wording left a loophole thousands who have pending charges now find themselves tangled up in as they wait to see if prosecutors will dismiss their charges.
Shortly after the law was signed, the S.C. Commission on Prosecution Coordination sent a memo to the state’s solicitors clarifying that people who violated the old law before the new law was signed “can still be charged and prosecuted for conduct that occurred before March 7, 2024,” according to a copy the commission provided to The Post and Courier.
But prosecutors across the state have agreed to dismiss many of the pending charges, according to 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson.
“Legally, we don’t have to dismiss them,” Wilson said. “But for the most part, everyone agreed that valuable court time shouldn’t be spent on something that’s no longer considered illegal by the Legislature.”
In Charleston County alone, there were more than 1,000 pending charges of unlawful carrying of a weapon when the permitless carry law passed, according to Wilson.
South Carolina Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, hugs his family after he is sworn in as a state senator on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. Tedder is sponsoring a bill that would require solicitors to dismiss gun charges for offenses that are no longer illegal under the state's permitless carry law. File/Jeffrey Collins/AP
It takes the circuit’s 50 assistant solicitors about 20 minutes to review a charge, Wilson said. She believes her office will have dismissed the majority of the charges by the end of this month.
Based on the guidelines solicitors across the state agreed to, Wilson's office does not intend to dismiss unlawful possession charges that were filed in conjunction with other charges that require the gun to come into evidence.
That's because if the unlawful possession charge is dismissed before prosecutors can indict the companion charges, police may have to go out and arrest people again, Wilson said.
State Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, who is a criminal defense attorney, said he has several clients who are frustrated that they have pending charges for offenses that are now legal.
“So (if) Person A pled guilty to unlawful carrying two days before Gov. McMaster signed the bill, they can get that expunged," state Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, told reporters. "Person B who pled guilty two days after, … they don’t get the same opportunity.”
Tedder is working to pass a bill that would require solicitors to dismiss the charges rather than rely on them to do so voluntarily. The bill would not require solicitors to drop charges for which the gun offense served as probable cause.
“The intent of this is not to find some loophole to just throw away cases. This is legitimately to protect those who now, constitutionally, are allowed to carry anywhere,” Tedder said. “We rushed the constitutional carry bill through without taking these things into consideration.”
The bill passed the state Senate 43-0 on April 7 and cleared a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee unanimously April 23.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster holds up a ceremonial copy of a bill allowing anyone who can legally own a gun to openly carry the weapon in the state at an event on March 19, 2024, in Columbia. McMaster signed the bill into law March 7.
Wilson expressed concern about what police will do now that the permitless carry law makes it harder to use gun possession as probable cause and more difficult to make gun-related arrests. But if the new law can keep people from getting caught up in the criminal justice system altogether, it would be "wonderful," she said.
"We just don’t know how it’s going to play out," she said.
