Special privileges
Lawmakers shouldn’t have exemptions from the rules the public must obey
South Carolina lawmakers shouldn’t give themselves special privileges the rest of the state’s population doesn’t enjoy. That includes the right to carry a concealed weapon anywhere they wish.
Citizens already resent the law that prohibits a lawmaker from being arrested on his way to the General Assembly. Newspapers routinely get calls from the public, complaining about lawmakers speeding on the interstate to Columbia, smug in the knowledge they won’t be stopped by police.
People recognize lawmakers should be public servants, not a privileged class enjoying a status above the laws the rest of the population must obey.
But lawmakers are considering a bill that would give them immunity from another law.
South Carolinians with a permit to carry a concealed weapon are still prohibited from carrying that weapon into the Statehouse and on its grounds. They are prohibited from carrying the weapon into any public or private school or college. And they can’t carry it into any business that posts a sign prohibiting concealed weapons.
But prosecutors and judges are exempt from these conditions while they are carrying out the duties of their office. State Rep. Keith Kelly has introduced a bill that would add lawmakers to that exemption.
Kelly says lawmakers shouldn’t have to remove guns from their vehicles before they travel to the Statehouse, and lawmakers who hunt should be able to have their guns in their vehicles.
That sounds reasonable. And it would justify the first of three sections of Kelly’s bill. That section would give lawmakers the privilege of carrying concealed weapons at the capitol or its grounds.
But it doesn’t justify the second and third sections of Kelly’s bill. The second would give lawmakers an exemption from the law barring concealed weapons at schools and colleges. The third would allow lawmakers to carry a concealed weapon anywhere in the state as long as they were “carrying out the duties of their office.”
Since the duties of lawmakers include meeting constituents and surveying the conditions of their district, a representative or senator could always be considered to be carrying out those duties, giving them the ability to carry a concealed gun anywhere at any time.
There is no reason to give lawmakers this special privilege, this exemption from the law that applies to all other permit holders. The General Assembly should kill Kelly’s bill and make its members obey the same laws they force on the rest of the people.
Spartanburg Herald Journal
Editorial
February 25, 2008
[...] Perhaps Keith Kelly’s gun idea is a good one afterall. [...]