AWB leftovers question

TS12000 · May 14, 2012

Hi all, my apologies if this has been covered I haven't found anything searching but would rather be safe than sorry. I will be moving into the Charleston area here in the coming days and was wondering if any of the surrounding jurisdictions have any AWB stuff leftover? Like here the city and county of Denver still has it's magazine restriction for residents, and theoretically could confiscate your mags/rifle/etc if caught with high cap magazines. I love some AR and would hate to make the mistake of being in a situation like that.

SuperChuck · May 14, 2012

All of our local rules pretty much follow the federal rules. SC didn't make any tougher than the ones that are currently in existance..

Large capacity mags - ok
Rifles with funny attchements or cosmetic features - ok (collapsing stocks, bayonet holders, pistol grips, etc, etc.)

At the last Spring Shootzenfest, 100 round drum magazines were present, and given a run for their money.
You can probably peruse the pictures and videos and see a 100 round mag dump or two...

Any other specific category you're concerned with?

SC

TS12000 · May 14, 2012

Oh I've seen plenty in my day brother, we have fun out here too

It has always just been kind of a pain making sure not to move into the wrong county but it sounds like you have your heads on a little straighter (minus the piss poor CCW/CHP reciprocity, what's up with that?)

SuperChuck · May 14, 2012

Gun laws tend to be in effect statewide here versus county-wide. Municipalities may try to enact some laws that are stricter, but I think thats more of a Northeastern and Western habit. The idea being that a mosaic of different laws thoughout a state would increase the exact problem you are trying to avoid.

Jurisdiction over certain laws is retained by the state, and any counties municipalities that try to circumvent that are discouraged. I.E. the helmet law that the city of Myrtle Beach enacted was thrown out and all people ticketed were entitled to refunds plus interest..

armaborealis · May 20, 2012

TS12000 said:
Hi all, my apologies if this has been covered I haven't found anything searching but would rather be safe than sorry. I will be moving into the Charleston area here in the coming days and was wondering if any of the surrounding jurisdictions have any AWB stuff leftover? Like here the city and county of Denver still has it's magazine restriction for residents, and theoretically could confiscate your mags/rifle/etc if caught with high cap magazines. I love some AR and would hate to make the mistake of being in a situation like that.

SC State Law establishes fairly strong preemption:

LOCAL REGULATIONS

SECTION 23-31-510. Prohibition against regulation of certain matters.

No governing body of any county, municipality, or other political subdivision in this State may enact or promulgate any regulation or ordinance which regulates or attempts to regulate the transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, or transportation of firearms, ammunition, components of firearms, or any combination of these things.

SECTION 23-31-520. Power to regulate public use of firearms; confiscation of firearms or ammunition.

This article does not affect the authority of any county, municipality, or political subdivision to regulate the careless or negligent discharge or public brandishment of firearms, nor does it prevent the regulation of public brandishment of firearms during the times of or a demonstrated potential for insurrection, invasions, riots, or natural disasters. This article denies any county, municipality, or political subdivision the power to confiscate a firearm or ammunition unless incident to an arrest.

Some localities have ordinances on the books which are more restrictive but they are theoretically unenforceable. If you were to violate a local ordnance and get arrested I'd expect them to try and plea bargain it to something like disorderly conduct or just drop the charges based on what other jurisdictions have done when trying to buck preemption in other states. Of course, you might be out legal fees and such in such a relatively rare scenario.

There's no SC state law affecting "assault weapon" type issues which I am aware of. There are no prohibitions on standard capacity magazines, semiautomatic firearms which have "shoulder things that go up" (or other scary cosmetic features), and so on.