South Carolinia CCW here I come

You made a great choice in moving to SC, its a great place to live. Getting your CWP involves taking an eight hour class which includes classwork and shooting skills. Just google SC CWP and I am sure you will be able to locate an instructor near your new home. The application involves fingerprints but my instructor did that for us during the class. The class was fun and I learned alot.

Go here

http://www.sled.sc.gov/SCStateGunLaws1.aspx?MenuID=CWP#6

finding a good CWP instructor

To find a good CWP Instructor, look here.

http://scfirearms.org/Training/CWP/GrassRootsCWPTrainerList.htm

GrassRoots GunRights of SC is South Carolina's largest, hardest working, most effective gun rights organization.

It's a pretty easy, straight forward process. Like Fas111 said, take the class and submit the paperwork to the SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division). You'll have your CCW in a few weeks. I think most instructors do the fingerprinting in class, mine did as well. Check out the states that do and do not have reciprocity w/SC. One other thing, I believe that you can now renew your SC CCW online, as long as there are no changes to your info and no arrests/convictions since your original permit. Something to keep in mind in a few years.

If you're going to be around North Charleston or Greenville get your CCW permit ASAP. I lived in North Charleston about three blocks from the Air Force base. I would be telling a big lie if I said I enjoyed it or missed it. It was a darn sight better than Greenville though.

When I lived in North Charleston there were two reports of home invasions with kidnappings in less than a month. The Taco Bell was robbed so many times they locked the dining room at sun down. There were two people stabbed to death in a night club. A guy freaked out at the hospital and killed a couple of staff members. Then he killed a cop (or security guard) as well as an EMT when he was fleeing.

Oh and I forgot to mention the TV adds that ran at least three times an hour. They were warnings to make sure you kept up with your kids and "help stop older men from sleeping with young girls." Appearantly there was a big problems with service members sleeping with girls under the legal age.

After about ten weeks I moved back to North Carolina.

I tried Greenville a couple of years ago. That wasn't much better. I could list a whole host of reasons that place is dangerous. However, I will keep it simple. If the police are brave enough to take payoffs in broad daylight, you have a problem. It is even more of a problem when they are brave enough to do it less than two blocks from a fully staffed sherrif department sub station.

If you decide to make SC stay on your toes. Greenville and North Charleston are far from safe places.

Contact ATP GunShop & Indoor shooting Range in Summerville , they used to hold three FULL classes a week!!!

I go visit every time I go see my buddy that lives in Cottageville .

There`s alot of housing going on on 17a from Monks corner to Charleston !!!!

Watch for the cop that sits waiting for you in Cottageville too!

I made the same (nearly) move 4 years ago.

Columbia MD to Columbia SC

U r gonna love it.

& at Jamestown crossroads !!!

Come on down, you will love it here. We even have a tax free weekend after Thanksgiving on firearms. The down side is, Palmetto Bugs.

That's pretty much right down here in my neck of the woods. The Cottageville guys have gotten me ONCE because that's farther out and I didn't know better.

Jamestown is 5 minutes away and I've always known to be careful driving through there. I've come to the conclusion that driving through Jamestown with an out of state license plate is a ticketable offense . . .

All in all though, the area isn't that bad. Given that I live out in the boonies, you have to drive into some town or another to do ANYTHING, and I'm in North Charleston virtually every weekend. Never had a single issue in my whole life. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't exactly go walking down Remount Rd alone at night (though I have stopped over there for Chinese food a few times - well lit parking lots aren't a big concern for me), but overall, it's not bad.

My best advice, PARTICULARLY with you looking at the Summerville area, is to just contact ATP Gunshop. For CCW classes, they've got a good setup. Indoor range is provided and they'll do everything right on site. Just don't plan on coming back to do any shopping after you get your license unless you're into sticker shock .

Let's say I'm pumping gas late and some BG's are over in the convenience store holding it up. I'm not gonna lean over the trunk and set up a "Shot" for when they exit the store. At best I might crouch below the back wheel with gun drawn, hammer back.

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Might a better strategy be to drive away and call 911? Then observe from a distance, get descriptions and direct LEOs with your pertinent info.

FWIW, in our state, you can keep a loaded handgun in the glovebox without a CWP.

Your name is already in a government database. Many of them.

If the "sheriff has your number"... you're doing it wrong, and it has nothing to do with having a CWP. I think about 1% of the population here has one. That is tens of thousands of people.

As far as the benefit, the biggest direct benefit I see is that the CWP serves as proof of a background check in multiple situations. Examples: once you have one, the gunshops don't have to call in your information to NICS for firearm purchases (thus never creating those records you are worried about); my gun club didn't require another background check when I joined... etc.

Franco, what if you went in to the gas station to relieve yourself, because of unstable bowels, and walked out of the bathroom to see two guys holding the place up?

Concealed carry is a very personal decision. The threat level you feel in every day life is only a small part of the equation. Local and state laws also play a role. I know one of the reasons I got the permit was to avoid ever changing local laws.

In NC there is no law against open carry. However, each town can make its own law regarding open carry. Plus they can make laws regarding how you transport weapons. So, in one town, locked in the glove box is fine. However, in the next town it might be required to be carried in the trunk. The third town might require it be in the trunk with no magazine and the action open.

A lot of people I have talked to got their CCH just so they would have one set of rules to follow when transporting their handgun. I have also met people that got their CCH just to avoid having to apply for a pistol permit every time they wanted to buy a hand gun.

In SC we don't have "pistol permits" required to purchase, and as far as I know, you can have a loaded gun in your glove box/console with no permit, anywhere other than federal property, etc.... State laws are important, and vary considerably.

You're looking for the SC permitting process, purchase process, transport laws, etc. Though overall we are pretty good with most everything, and are different/better than NC in some respects.

Next point, when would I be in a situation where Concealed Carry would be a benefit?

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Understand: there will be at ton of bad situations that you could possibly get into - anywhere - where the gun will be of no use whatsoever - even if you're carrying it. Be that because it's smarter to not get involved, or because you can't access it, etc. The details are unimportant, because those are the situations that don't matter.

What matters are the other situations - the ones where the gun WOULD help. You can't always itemize those, because they're not always something you can realize ahead of time. As to those situations, I give you the simple trite by true wisdom: it's better to have the gun and not need it, than to need the gun and not have it.

Sad news on the open carry front though (since you did mention it): no open carry in South Carolina. Only exception is you can carry while engaged in hunting or fishing, but other than that, can't do it.

PS As to the local sheriff's knowing about your permit, believe me, this is a VERY pro-gun state. No need to worry about that. Over here in Berkeley County one of the main CCW permit classes are held by some guys from over in the sheriff's department. The do the classes when off-duty. One of them goes by the nickname "Viper" - sounds menacing, but he's actually one of the nicest guys you'll ever met (of course, I've never been in a situation where we'd be on unfriendly terms ). Trust me, I've lived in this area all my life, and I wasn't even aware that there was such a thing as an "anti-gun" movement until I left for college (1999).

Franco, if you get a SC concealed carry permit you can carry in NC I believe. Just remember in NC it only applies to handguns. So, long blade knives, batons, and stun guns are not covered.

You can indeed carry a loaded handgun in your vehicle provided it's in the glove box or center console. Under seat carry is a no go.

One additional thing about the CWP here, it's only issued by SLED, so local LE hoops are null and void. On the other hand, I know of several folks who have avoided traffic tickets as a majority of the LE types know that it's a "certified good guy" card.

It definitely hasn't helped me avoid any traffic tickets. YMMV I guess...

CWP is a good start.

Southern accent?
Decent haircut?
"Yessir"/"Nosir"/"I'm sorry sir"?

Pretty much gotta have the whole package.

MikeNice said:

Franco, what if you went in to the gas station to relieve yourself, because of unstable bowels, and walked out of the bathroom to see two guys holding the place up?

Concealed carry is a very personal decision. The threat level you feel in every day life is only a small part of the equation. Local and state laws also play a role. I know one of the reasons I got the permit was to avoid ever changing local laws.

In NC there is no law against open carry. However, each town can make its own law regarding open carry. Plus they can make laws regarding how you transport weapons. So, in one town, locked in the glove box is fine. However, in the next town it might be required to be carried in the trunk. The third town might require it be in the trunk with no magazine and the action open.

A lot of people I have talked to got their CCH just so they would have one set of rules to follow when transporting their handgun. I have also met people that got their CCH just to avoid having to apply for a pistol permit every time they wanted to buy a hand gun.

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The thing about NC is they can arrest you for something called frightening the public, or scaring the public (I am not sure what the legal term is) by displaying a weapon in public. With it concealed, nobody is frightened by someone looking like Matt Dillon or Patton with a pair of ivory handled Colts on their hips. There are places where you are not supposed to carry concealed like banks, schools, Post Offices, government buildings, police stations (for obvious reasons), Court Houses (now that could create a scene bigtime), businesses that post a no CCW allowed. What did I miss?

In my county in NC, it took about 4 months for all the hoops to be jumped through after taking the class. Just as an interesting side note, most of the applicants in my class were women. One lady used a walker and kept her piece in a concealed carry pouch on the side of her walker. She was actually pretty good with her .38 and quite cogent of what was going on.