OT + , Open Carry in SC

Padding is about being in the outdoors, disconnecting from day to day drudgery, relieving stress, getting some healthy exercise, enjoying the quiet, maybe even finding some temporary serenity.
Arguing about guns is exactly the opposite. There are more than enough all guns all the time platforms for those who think they have the answer.
Can we please just stop?

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I own a few guns. I was a hunter once upon a time, but gave that up because i cab afford to buy food at the grocery.

I have one handgun that could be considered a concealed weapon, and my state wants me to carry it. They think more guns on the street makes heroes who will shoot bad guys. I call that a pile of crap to step in, so it has a place where it can keep my lady love safe, if it hits the fan.

Our problem is those who leave guns in their cars and advertise it by claiming their second amendment rights. Those cars get broken into because criminals are sure there are guns in them.

Those people need to understand, maybe through fines, that guns are a personal resonsibility, not a right.

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Gun ownership is a right, but with rights come responsibilities.

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Apparently not….

You’re right, it seems. What the subject has to do with paddling still mystifies me.

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The Horror!!! The Horror!!!

Now 'em Philistines,
was none compliant,
with any scripture strictures,
theys sez, “Let’s get four giants!”

All hell broke loose and fast!
Backs broke on Jew and camel.
David threw down his sling,
and cried, “How do I book 'em, Samuel?”

But these was chosen people,
Judea’s Israelites,
They cried, “Bring us favor, God!
Ain’t we within your sss-rights?”

And though tweren’t no Bills,
to 'em Sauls, Morts 'n Abrahams,
seems BigG faster than any 4G’s,
answered that call of man.

For soon within their grasp,
theyz held the Holy Canon,
or was it cannon-aid?
(And was this righteous plannin’?)

Thus from wandered I-Tie,
who took powder with Chinese,
came to all Jills and Bills right or wrong,
means to put giants on their knees.

Least till those limpin’ giants,
behind castle walls and vaults,
started hurlin’ nasty stuff,
up David’s with catapults.

Since then righteous right-or-wrong,
and even us coastal commies,
been hurlin’ weapons of mass insult,
high law Locke’d 'n loaded self-swamies.

Why, I’ve ev’n seen here,
from practicioners before the bow,
hurled baskets of kitties, bunnies pups!
Are we gone mad Frenchman hurlin’ cows???

And fer ‘em “unalienable rights”?
Well, until all probin’ aliens be gone,
you’ll see me man this death-ray (sic)canon,
till Frank sez time to, “Paddle on.”

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I have an SC CWP although I have never, and never will carry. I took the class a few years ago, really just to better understand SC law and while I enjoy shooting, when I’m not at my local range my guns are locked away in a safe.

I grew up in England, the son of a WW2 infantry sergeant, and learned to shoot there. I’m a dual national, and a naturalized US citizen, so my views on 2A are probably not shared by many here. Mostly I’m dismayed by just how divided this country currently is.

Okay, let’s get back to paddling.

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In order to operate a motor vehicle in the US, one must pass a test, and carry insurance.
If you want to buy a firearm, just show up and buy it.
Food for thought.

Absolutely agree. I have had my CCW since 2015 and would never be dumb enough to open carry unless I was hiking in the wilderness. An open carrier will be the first target for a criminal shooter which aligns with your comment.

As to the comment about permitless carry leading to the "3rd world’ - anyone who thinks that is free to stay out of South Carolina. We don’t need your money, your approval, or your patronage.

~Cheers

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I’m just glad I don’t have to carry my canoe concealed, I’d never get to paddle.

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People love to bring up the motor vehicle comparison from one side of the picture but get upset when another side is presented. How about if we just ban all motor vehicles because of the frequency of DUI’s and accidents caused by reckless driving. And how many people manage to pass driving tests by barely getting through with a lenient tester but can’t drive safely out on the open road.

Let’s punish all of the safe, conscientious, law abiding citizens because of the actions of all the miscreants be they firearm related or motor vehicle related. Ooooor, how about just enforcing already existing laws for both communities.

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The difference is one is a right the other is not

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You sarcastically stated, “I’m sure that discouraged the bad guys” as if they were going to be discouraged by the laws anyway. Like a bad guy is somehow gonna go, “yea I’d rob this person at gun point but I don’t have my cwp so I can’t carry my gun with me.”

While I understand your concern, open carry has been around for a while. This law simply states you don’t have to have a CWP to carry because it is your 2A right to carry.

The same rules still apply. You still can’t take your gun into a bar, church, sporting event, or any place that does not allow guns. You still can’t brandish your weapon at someone. The only thing this has done is eliminate the need to spend weeks waiting to get a CWP.

I won’t pretend there aren’t idiots out there that don’t know how to safely handle a firearm. That said, the deaths aren’t coming from people who didn’t know how to hold their gun properly. Not a lot of news stories about the gun falling out of someone’s holster and because they didn’t have the safety on the gun hut the ground, fired, and killed an innocent bystander. No, the deaths are coming from the lunatics and mentally unstable thinking they will fire into a crowd because they didn’t get enough love as a child.

If anything, your criminals are going to be slightly more likely to think twice when just about anyone could have a gun on them.

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Firstly, you cannot just show up and buy a firearm. You may not be familiar but you DO have to fill out ATF form 4473. The firearm dealer then has to send this days to the FBI to ensure you are neither a criminal or on any watch lists. This process can take days.

To purchase a rifle or shotgun you must be 18, however to purchase a hand gun you must be 21.

Now on a separate note, owning a gun is a constitutional right where as driving a car is a privelege and is not listed anywhere in the constitution.

But I do agree, it is WAY too easy to get a license. We need more idiots off the road.

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My 87 year old mom this week so I’m a lost cause.

I’m in favor of constitutional carry and my quality of life is better when I can exercise my option to defend myself. We ladies and handicapped call it “the great equalizer.”

I have carried my whole life and I carried during the LA riots when I worked in an ambulance (critical care RN) because my boss suggested it.

I am law abiding and very responsible.

I feel much better that my mom can defend herself at home alone at night.

It’s probably an issue that some people will never agree on.

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There is no competency clause in the 2nd amendment. You’re privilege to drive is up to the state, just like hunting and fishing. That can be and is restricted. Some confuse the 2nd amendment with hunting.

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It was piointed out to me that a criminal conviction does not negate your 2nd amendment rights. I read it and couldn’t any mention of it.

I don’t like the idea of criminals owning guns, but I object more vigorously to the growing trend that prosecutors are letting criminals roam free. It doesn’t bother me that woke politicians let their scum roam free, and the voting public just doesn’t seem to give a hoot. THAT indifference to public safety leaves law abiding citizens little option but to fend for themselves. The neanderthal that crushed the nursing student’s head was enabled by New York’s way of driving the trash to other parts of the country. Georgia gets to deal with it. People het pushed onto the subway train tracks and the "enlightened " prosecutors arrest any samaratan who come to the aid of a victim.

Imagine witnessing a crime and the criminal goes through the revolving courthouse door then smiles at you and says, “I’m coming to get you and your little dog too! You’ll never live to testify against me ! Ha ha ha!”

The courts did rule that personal safety is the individual’s responsibility, or something like that. You see, that doesn’t bother me because I can take care of myself. End of discussion.

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Most people that decide to carry firearms are probably at least as well trained as law enforcement in safely handling their firearms. It should not be discouraging to have a well- educated citizenry keeping the peace themselves rather than outsourcing protection to folks that have plenty of other work to attend to. It doesn’t hurt to get trained yourself even if you will never use or carry a firearm. They really aren’t that scary once you learn to handle them.

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“Most people that decide to carry firearms are probably at least as well trained as law enforcement in safely handling their firearms.”

In most states (if not all) this is true.

BUT, that is a long way from a national standard. As a US Marine and later an instructor with DOD teaching marines and US Navy SEALs as well as several law enforcement agencies, both inside and outside the USA, I can assure all the readers here that “law enforcement personnel” are all over the board in their level of training. Many times (and I do mean MANY) I have seen recreational shooters out perform veteran cops in shooting skills.

When I taught my classes I did so to the same standards as what I trained my Marines and SEALs to. The grading was different, but that was not left up to me. But bringing classes of civilian citizens up to about 50% of the skill level as those on a Hunter/Killer team still put them well ahead of the skill level of most cops. Not all, but most.

It must be remembered (and some grace offered) that cops, if they do the job correctly will probable go 20-25 years for every time they have to fire a shot. We have a tendency to think of cops as experts in gun fighting and that’s simply not the case! 99.9% of their job is to detain and/or arrest bad people, NOT to kill them. So holding cops to the standard of a RECON Marine or Navy SEAL is unreasonable.

Now I am of the opinion that most are not trained to a high enough standard, and I don’t deny that. But I also think it’s unreasonable to expect all cops to be able to make head shots at 50 yards with a handgun. To attain that level of skill and keep it requires years and hundreds of thousands of round fired.
As a Marine, when I was not deployed I was training myself or training others to fight. About 90% of that training involved shooting. If we were to train cops to that standard when would they get to go arrest bad people? Training to the level of a SEAL or Recon Marine is a full time job.

So my idea of proper training is to give my students the same type of weapons handling drills I gave to my Marines. If the average civilian get 40% or 50% of that skill they are still about 4 times better then the average bad guy. It is up to the departments issuing the license to decide what percentage of the scores are “passing” for a CCW. Wyoming is a Constitutional Carry State, so here all my students are the very best kind. They are those that know their level of skill is what they will have should they ever need it and the law has nothing to do with what they require. Such students are the very best because they WANT to be better, not because someone else wants them to have a “score” that "passes.

The other thing I believe is VITAL in training civilians is to stress the FACT that every round they fire WILL hit! -------- Something. And unlike a cop, they have no bonding agency to cover them civilly or criminally if their miss harms property or injures (or kills) another person other than their enemy.
So like it or not, being just or not, the fact is that a civilian who shoots is not going to have the same level of protection from legal consequence as a cop. So missing is a VERY bad thing to do. That is what I teach and what I hammer on----- far more than any other shooting instructor I have seen teach classes for city, state or county level agencies. Missing, from a tactical standpoint is awful in that you go empty faster and empty gun is as useless as a stick or rock. From a legal standpoint it’s also awful because those missed bullets do as much damage to what ever they strike as they would do to what you wanted them to strike. Only hits count.
So to degrade the score to “pass” is an administrative decision. But the mindset of any of my students to “shoot well enough to pass” is discouraged. I teach to gain a mindset of “shoot well enough to end the threat and save your life and everyone else too”.
Learn to shoot as well as you possibly can. It’s fun to learn and to practice but when it’s time to fight, it will be many things but “fun” will not be one of them.
Take such training as a life and death equation ------- because that’s exactly what it is.

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This thread sucks. Moderator, please close it and delete it. It has no place on a paddling website. It serves no other purpose than to divide people who previously had at least one thing in common. String, it’s your thread. Ask to have it deleted and learn a lesson from the result. You could have posted this on any number of other sites. Why bring it here knowing it was going to be destructive?

I want to remind the old timers here and the site owner that previously the political forum, whatever it was called, was shut down because advertisers didn’t want to be associated with the vile and primitive posts in that forum. This thread violates that decision. Please delete it before it gets worse.

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