On May 17, 2021, Governor Henry McMaster signed the Open Carry with Training Act, which goes into effect on August 15, 2021. However, in accordance with the law, the City of North Charleston still prohibits the carrying of firearms at city owned premises and facilities.
NO CONCEALABLE WEAPONS ALLOWED. Neither the South Carolina Concealed Carry Act nor Open Carry Act permit the carrying of a concealed weapon on City of North Charleston owned premises.
For Businesses
If you wish to prohibit firearms on your property, the following signage guidelines are provided.
- (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, whether concealed or openly carried, 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, whether concealed or openly carried, 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.
- (D) Nothing in this section prevents a public or private employer or owner of a business from posting a sign regarding the prohibition or allowance on those premises of concealable weapons, whether concealed or openly carried, which may be unique to that business.”