State Senator Chip Campsen
I am a lifelong outdoorsman, strong supporter of the Second Amendment and serial exerciser of my Second Amendment rights. I chair the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee that has jurisdiction over hunting, fishing and forestry laws in South Carolina. I authored the Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing South Carolinians’ right to hunt and fish, am a recipient of the NRA Rick Daniel Memorial Defender of Freedom Award and the only state legislator in the nation to receive Ducks Unlimited’s coveted Conservation Service Award.
I could go on and on. The point is, firearms have been a big part of my life since early childhood. From the beginning of deer season in August to the end of turkey season in May, rarely a week goes by without me bearing multiple classes of weapons. Yet out-of-state dark money groups have flooded my district with misleading mailers and social media, painting me as an anti-gun puppet of Joe Biden and existential threat to Second Amendment rights.
Have I suddenly become a gun control zealot? Not a chance. What’s really going on is out-of-state dark money groups are demanding we repeal our law requiring a concealable weapons permit to carry a concealable weapon – a pistol – in public.
I support the CWP requirement to carry concealable weapons and refuse to be bullied into submission. So they attack me relentlessly. This same tactic has been deployed in multiple states. Many have caved. I will not.
CWP requirements include a clean criminal background check, live fire training and instruction in complex laws governing when lethal force is justified. I have supported this model since its inception in 1996. It has advanced responsible gun ownership, prevented crime and saved innocent lives.
The criminal background check assures CWP holders are law-abiding. Range training assures they are less likely to injure innocent bystanders. Legal training assures they understand when lethal force is justified – important details when using a weapon in self-defense. CWP holders enjoy reciprocity – the right to carry – in 35 other states, frictionless gun purchases and respect of law enforcement.
I have vigorously argued that this tried-and-tested model should not be discarded. Yet the General Assembly is on the cusp of eliminating the CWP requirement for carrying a concealable weapon in public. No criminal background check. No range training. No instruction in the law of self-defense. Nothing.
Proponents of trashing the CWP requirement strategically dub their proposal “constitutional carry” – as if the Constitution mandates their wild west visions. It does not. In fact, South Carolina’s longstanding CWP requirement conforms hand-in-glove to the most important Second Amendment decisions authored by two of the most conservative justices in history.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), Justice Antonin Scalia crafted a tour de force of Second Amendment jurisprudence. Heller held the Second Amendment is a personal right for “law-abiding, responsible citizens” to bear arms “in defense of hearth and home.”
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022), the Court struck down a law preventing New Yorkers from carrying concealable weapons unless they demonstrated an extraordinary self-defense need to the satisfaction of a government official. Justice Clarence Thomas held the Second Amendment is for “law abiding, responsible people” with “ordinary self-defense needs.” Requiring demonstration of extraordinary self-defense needs violated the Second Amendment.
Bruen specifically noted CWP laws like South Carolina’s are constitutional because they do not require a showing of extraordinary self-defense needs to government officials.
Heller and Bruen, in concert, demonstrate South Carolina’s CWP law is in accord with the Constitution. Background checks assure holders are “law abiding.” Training assures they are “responsible.”
Law enforcement widely supports our current CWP law. Initially, they widely opposed the so-called “constitutional carry” bill that eviscerates it. So proponents of constitutional carry brought law enforcement to heel by taking a hostage. They made it clear law enforcement’s top legislative priority – enhanced penalties for felons in possession of firearms – would not pass unless and until constitutional carry passed. This has gone on for years.
Enhanced penalties for felons in possession has been a top priority for Gov. Henry McMaster as well. He asked for it twice in his January State of the State Address. Yet hostage status persists. Public safety is subordinated to politics.
Opponents were unable to stop the bill in the Senate. But we did improve it on the margins by creating incentives to obtain a CWP. I passed an amendment that made renewing a CWP virtually effortless. Another amendment enhanced penalties for gun-related offenders who do not possess a CWP.
The bill now resides in a House-Senate conference committee. The outcome is uncertain. But one thing is certain. Out-of-state agitators will continue their campaign of lies and deceit, as they have in numerous states before us. I refuse to cower to their demands by taking a wrecking ball to South Carolina’s time-tested CWP law.
See the Second Amendment Foundation’s experience with out-of-state agitators involved in this effort in South Carolina: saf.org/dudley-browns-despicable-deception/.
Sen. Chip Campsen represents District 43 in the state Senate, which includes Charleston, Beaufort and Colleton counties.
