Charleston, SC-The SC House of Representatives has just passed the bill to allow loaded concealed weapons in bars and other places which sell alcohol. Our governor, who tweeted her delight at getting a pistol for Christmas, is expected to sign the bill into law shortly. Under this law, a business which doesn't want concealed weapon holders to bring loaded guns on their premises must post a very specifically designed sign.
I called SLED this morning to find out where we could purchase compliant signs which would allow a business to prohibit people from bringing loaded weapons into their location. This is important because concealed weapons permit instructors in SC have been teaching people seeking permits that they may disregard any sign which does not meet these technical requirements. This means the bar or restaurant purchasing off the shelf no weapons allows signs on Amazon or at the office supply store is getting a sign that concealed weapons permit holders in SC are being taught to disregard.
The state, deep in the thrall of firearms industry money and pro gun ALEC generated legislation couldn't provide a list of places where legally sufficient signs could be purchased. Evidently, even though it's 2013, they don't have PDF that people can download or templates sign companies can use to generate the appropriate design. If you want to carry a loaded gun, SLED's eager to help. If you need a sign to keep guns out of your coffee shop, you get to play lawyer and sign designer on your own.
It's deeply ironic is a sick sort of South Carolina way that our State carefully regulates signs and encourages people to ignore the expresses wishes of a property owner regarding their place of business, while our state has 229,456 active permits as of December, 2013 for people to carry loaded weapons into any place which doesn't post a very large sign at every entrance and a truly enormous sign for outdoor locations. Last year, the gun lobby's capacity to drive pistol mania into the culture produced a huge surge in permits issued, to 83 thousand new permits issued in a single year. See the statistics page on the SLED website. This is a sign of a sick society making itself sicker.
I have friends who have permits, such as Judges, who really need to be able to protect themselves since they sentence people to prison and decide divorce cases. However I doubt we really need to have 10% of the adult population here packing a loaded weapon, which is where we'll be by the end of this year. At some point the number of weapons out there will be sufficient to support a chain reaction firefight in a public place after someone forgets to put their safety on and leaves a live round in the chamber.
I called some local sign companies and their front line sales people didn't now about these highly technical requirements, though they indicated their design department might. We're getting local prices now and I'll update this post as soon as they are available.
Here is the relevant, SC Statute.
ECTION 23-31-235. Sign requirements.
(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any requirement of or allowance for the posting of signs prohibiting the carrying of a concealable weapon upon any premises shall only be satisfied by a sign expressing the prohibition in both written language interdict and universal sign language.
(B) All signs must be posted at each entrance into a building where a concealable weapon permit holder is prohibited from carrying a concealable weapon and must be:
(1) clearly visible from outside the building;
(2) eight inches wide by twelve inches tall in size;
(3) contain the words "NO CONCEALABLE WEAPONS ALLOWED" in black one-inch tall uppercase type at the bottom of the sign and centered between the lateral edges of the sign;
(4) contain a black silhouette of a handgun inside a circle seven inches in diameter with a diagonal line that runs from the lower left to the upper right at a forty-five degree angle from the horizontal;
(5) a diameter of a circle; and
(6) placed not less than forty inches and not more than sixty inches from the bottom of the building's entrance door.
(C) If the premises where concealable weapons are prohibited does not have doors, then the signs contained in subsection (A) must be:
(1) thirty-six inches wide by forty-eight inches tall in size;
(2) contain the words "NO CONCEALABLE WEAPONS ALLOWED" in black three- inch tall uppercase type at the bottom of the sign and centered between the lateral edges of the sign;
(3) contain a black silhouette of a handgun inside a circle thirty-four inches in diameter with a diagonal line that is two inches wide and runs from the lower left to the upper right at a forty-five degree angle from the horizontal and must be a diameter of a circle whose circumference is two inches wide;
(4) placed not less than forty inches and not more than ninety-six inches above the ground;
(5) posted in sufficient quantities to be clearly visible from any point of entry onto the premises.
HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 464, Section 13; 2002 Act No. 274, Section 5.
We should have some sample signs shortly and we'll share where business can buy their own. Since many of us are going to be limiting the places we go based on these signs now, we'll be looking for them. I'll give the legislature some credit, they certianly made sure they'll be big enough.
South Carolina is a backwater for firearm sanity, but a group is organizing now. See https://www.facebook.com/... on facebook.
10:18 AM PT: I've heard back from one of our most active local sign companies. They don't have this design worked up or in stock. They have the legal requirements and they're working on a price quote. They probably have large inventories of stock signs they can produce which meet the ISO standards used around the world, but evidently this particular wording and size isn't in there. Another company, part of a national chain, said they only did custom signs. They didn't have a template in stock either.
2:13 PM PT: Columbia Free Times reports that one SC Supplier has ordered a large batch of signs. That supplier confirms that all the standard commercially available signs in use around the state (which meet ISO standards, but not state requirements probably aren't legally effective. http://www.free-times.com/... One Charleston Company has prepared what seems to be a compliant sign for our use here. We'll report on prices and ordering as soon as we have details.
Sat Jan 25, 2014 at 9:15 AM PT: We believe we have an SC Compliant sign available from a local sign company of good reputation in Charleston, SC now. Brooks Signs sent me this design for review which I believe to be compliant. You can view a PDF https://drive.google.com/...
You can contact the company for signs at http://www.brookssigns.com/...
We'll be contacting the Governor's Office on Monday to ask that they check and approve this design.
Signs for outdoor locations, such as parking lots must be much larger and meet a separate set of standards. Please refer to the full statute in the original post for location requirements as well.
While these signs probably work fine in a suburban strip mall environment, many historic locations in downtown Charleston will find locating them to be a tough fit.
However weapon permit holders are being taught to ignore anything but the signs meeting SC's standards.