Conceal Carry with a Drivers License
Air Date:02/28/2012
If the state legislature gets its way South Dakota residents will no longer need a permit to carry a concealed handgun inside the state.
Currently anyone who wants to conceal a pistol or revolver must apply for a permit to do so.
Under the proposal anyone with a valid South Dakota driver's license automatically has the right to carry a concealed weapon in South Dakota.
Those who want to carry concealed outside South Dakota in another state with reciprocity must still apply for a permit to do so.
Republican State Senator Larry Rohden relates this issue to the right to bear arms.
"Give us our rights, don't restrict them. Concealed weapons laws do place a restriction weather or not you support them or not that's a gut check you have to decide for yourself," says Rohden.
Opponents are concerned the requirements for a driver's license are not the same requirements for a concealed pistol permit.
Currently those who have a conceal-carry permit have passed a background check showing that they don't have a violent or criminal history.
The bill passed the state senate by a vote of 22 to 11, it goes next to the governor's desk.
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