South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley last week signed into law H. 3799, a bill which grants gun permit reciprocity with Georgia.
The bill, pressed for mainly by South Carolina legislators around Augusta, allows for Georgia gun owners with a concealed carry permit to possess those same rights when traveling in South Carolina. In the past, South Carolina restricted that right because of Georgia’s more lax gun-safety training requirements and background checks.
Said a spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens following the bill’s signing, “The State of South Carolina has determined that it will honor Georgia firearms permits. Therefore, effective immediately, Georgia recognizes firearms permits issued by South Carolina.”
South Carolina becomes the 31st state to share gun permit reciprocity with Georgia, joining Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The bill was nearly killed by a filibuster from Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat pushing for expanded background checks for gun buyers. A promise to continue talks regarding background check legislation was enough to get him to back off, and the bill passed just hours before the end of South Carolina’s 2016 legislative session.