South Carolina Gun Laws: Complete Guide

Private Sales and Transfers

• Verify identity, residency, age, and eligibility; never transfer to a known prohibited person or act as an unlicensed dealer. Interstate transfers ordinarily require an FFL. [4][8]
• A prohibited recipient under South Carolina law includes anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison whose conviction has not been expunged, pardoned, or otherwise had civil rights restored, and anyone adjudicated a mental defective or committed to a mental institution. A seller who knowingly transfers a handgun to a person in one of these categories, a fugitive, or someone barred by a qualifying court order commits a separate felony offense, independent of the federal prohibited-person rules that also apply. [4]
• South Carolina has no state form or background-check portal that converts an otherwise unlawful transfer into a lawful one, and a private seller who regularly sells firearms for profit can trigger the federal dealer-licensing requirement regardless of how the sales are documented. [4][8]

• Check the recipient's identity and eligibility. [4]
• Use an FFL for interstate or uncertain transfers. [8]
• Do not sell or give a handgun to a person under eighteen outside the narrow military, Guard, ROTC, or supervised-instruction exceptions. [4][9]

Important notice: A voluntary bill of sale does not legalize an otherwise prohibited transfer. [4][8]

Buying a Firearm

• No state purchase permit, waiting period, or registry applies. Dealers conduct federal checks and apply federal age rules. [4][10][9]
• Federal dealers generally require age eighteen to sell rifles and shotguns and twenty-one to sell handguns, frames, and receivers. South Carolina layers its own rule on top of that: it is unlawful for anyone, dealer or private party, to sell, offer to sell, or deliver a handgun to a person under eighteen, subject to narrow exceptions for the Armed Forces, National Guard, State Militia, ROTC, and supervised instruction under a parent or adult instructor. [4][9]
• A South Carolina CWP is not a purchase permit and does not exempt a buyer from the federal NICS check at a licensed dealer. A delayed or extended NICS response is a federal timing issue, not a state waiting period. [2][10]

Ownership and Prohibited Persons

• South Carolina has no general owner license or ERPO statute. State and federal prohibited-person rules remain enforceable. [4][10]
• State law independently bars possession by anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison and by anyone adjudicated a mental defective or committed to a mental institution. These are not automatically lifetime bans: the felony bar does not apply once the conviction has been expunged, set aside, pardoned, or had civil rights restored, unless the pardon, expungement, or restoration expressly says firearm rights are not restored. [4]
• South Carolina does not allow expungement of an ordinary felony conviction, so a pardon issued by the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services is generally the path to restoring firearm rights after a felony; applicants typically must have completed their sentence, including any probation or parole, before applying. A person disqualified only for a past mental-health adjudication or commitment may separately petition SLED and the court for relief by showing the underlying treatment requirement has ended and the person is no longer dangerous. [3][4]

• Do not assume that finishing a sentence alone restores firearm rights without a pardon, expungement, or civil-rights restoration. [4]
• Domestic-violence convictions, qualifying protective orders, and federal prohibited-person categories can independently bar possession even without a South Carolina felony conviction. [4][10]

Concealed and Open Carry

• Eligible people age eighteen or older may carry openly or concealed without a permit. Optional CWPs support reciprocity. Possession alone does not justify a stop, and carriers have no general notification duty, but lawful officer commands still apply. [1][2][3]
• A CWP still has value even under permitless carry. SLED automatically recognizes valid Georgia and North Carolina permits, and separately recognizes other states' permits under reciprocity agreements that require a criminal background check and firearm training comparable to South Carolina's; permitless carry protects conduct only inside South Carolina, so travelers who carry regularly out of state generally still need a CWP or another state's recognized license. [2][3]
• Applying for a CWP requires a completed application, a valid South Carolina address matching a state driver's license or ID, proof of residence, a vision-fitness showing, SLED-approved training documentation, and fingerprints (unless obtaining them is medically impossible); renewal applicants skip fingerprints and training documentation. Applications run through SLED's EasyPath online system with a scheduled IdentoGo fingerprinting appointment, or by mail. [2]

Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine in South Carolina

• The South Carolina Constitution, Article I, Section 20, states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." [5]
• Section 16-11-440(A) and (D), part of the Protection of Persons and Property Act, presume that a person has a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury when using deadly force against someone who unlawfully and forcibly enters, or attempts to enter, that person's dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or who tries to forcibly remove another person from one of those places against their will. That presumption does not apply if the entrant has a legal right to be there (an owner, lessee, or other lawful occupant), if the person using force is engaged in unlawful activity at the time, or if the entrant is a law-enforcement officer performing official duties who has properly identified themselves. The heightened presumption is limited to a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; it does not extend to a place of business. [6]
• Separately, Section 16-11-440(C) sets a statewide stand-your-ground rule: a person who is not engaged in unlawful activity and who is attacked in another place where they have a right to be, including a place of business, has no duty to retreat and may meet force with force, including deadly force, if they reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death, great bodily injury, or a violent crime as defined by Section 16-1-60. [6]

Important notice: Section 16-11-450 goes further than many states' self-defense statutes: a person whose use of deadly force is justified under the Protection of Persons and Property Act (or another applicable law) is immune from both criminal prosecution and civil action for that use of force, and a court that finds the immunity applies must award the defendant reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, lost income, and other litigation expenses. That immunity is not automatic, however — it applies only once a court determines the deadly force was actually justified (typically through a pretrial immunity hearing), it does not apply if the force was used against a law-enforcement officer who was performing official duties and properly identified, and it does not protect force a court finds was not legally justified. Do not assume a self-defense claim guarantees protection from arrest or a lawsuit; get individualized legal advice before relying on any of this content in an actual confrontation. [7]

Transportation and Vehicles

• Eligible people may generally store or carry firearms anywhere in a vehicle, openly or concealed. Entering restricted property changes the analysis, and federal safe passage may protect qualifying interstate travel. [1][12]
• South Carolina's unlawful-carrying statute expressly permits a person not otherwise barred from carrying to lawfully store a firearm anywhere in a vehicle, whether occupied or unoccupied; the older rule limiting handguns in a car to a closed glove compartment, console, trunk, or fastened case no longer restricts an eligible occupant, though it can still describe a compliant option in doubtful cases. School property is treated separately: firearms may remain inside an attended or locked vehicle on school grounds even though carrying them into school buildings is prohibited. [1][4]
• For interstate travel, 18 U.S.C. 926A can protect a person legally transporting a firearm between two places where possession is lawful if, during the trip, the firearm is unloaded and neither it nor any ammunition is readily accessible from the passenger compartment (or is locked in a container other than the glove compartment or console if the vehicle has no separate compartment). [12]

Restricted Firearms and Magazines

• South Carolina has no general magazine limit or assault-weapon ban. NFA firearms remain subject to federal approval, registration, and transfer rules plus applicable state law. [4][11]
• State law treats machine guns and sawed-off shotguns or rifles differently from other NFA items. It is a felony under South Carolina law to store, keep, possess, transport, sell, or give away a machine gun, a firearm readily convertible to fire automatically, or a sawed-off shotgun or rifle, and the exceptions cover only the armed forces, the National Guard, peace officers and corrections personnel acting in their duties, licensed manufacturers and dealers, and SLED-licensed special uses such as professional movie-making. Unlike many states, South Carolina's exceptions do not extend to an ordinary private citizen who has completed the federal NFA making or transfer process; antique firearms are separately excluded from the article entirely. [4][3]
• Suppressors are not defined as machine guns or sawed-off weapons under this article, so they remain generally lawful in South Carolina when the owner has completed the federal NFA tax-stamp and registration process. Anyone considering a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or machine gun should confirm current South Carolina eligibility before beginning the federal process, since state law can prohibit possession even after ATF approval. [4][11]

• A federal tax stamp does not make civilian possession of a machine gun or a sawed-off shotgun or rifle lawful in South Carolina outside the narrow statutory exceptions. [4]
• Suppressors and most other NFA firearms besides machine guns and sawed-off shotguns or rifles are generally lawful when fully federally compliant. [4][11]

Safe Storage and Reporting

• No universal home-locking mandate applies, but since December 1, 2025, an owner or person lawfully in possession of a firearm must report its loss or theft within a set deadline. Secure storage remains prudent for every firearm regardless of type. [3]
• South Carolina has no dedicated child-access-prevention statute imposing criminal liability merely for storing a firearm where a minor could reach it. Liability instead flows through other statutes: knowingly furnishing a handgun to a person under eighteen outside the limited exceptions is a separate offense, and general child-endangerment or negligence principles can still apply if a stored firearm contributes to injury. [4]
• Section 23-31-215(K) now requires an owner or person lawfully in possession of a firearm, rifle, or shotgun to report its loss or theft to the appropriate local law-enforcement agency within ten days of discovering the loss or theft, with the facts and circumstances of the loss or theft included in the report; noncompliance can carry a criminal penalty. Reporting promptly also helps get the serial number into NCIC and can matter if the firearm is later recovered or used in a crime. [3]

• Store firearms and ammunition so minors and other unauthorized people cannot access them. [4]
• Report a lost or stolen firearm, rifle, or shotgun to local law enforcement within ten days of discovery, as required since December 1, 2025. [3]

Restricted Locations and Private Property

• Firearms remain prohibited in law-enforcement and correctional facilities, courthouses, polling places, government meetings, school athletic events, daycares, churches without permission, medical facilities, another person's dwelling without permission, and properly posted property, among other locations. [1][3]
• The church and medical-facility restrictions turn on permission rather than an absolute ban: carrying is allowed once the church or facility gives express consent, so the practical rule is to ask first rather than assume either location is automatically open or automatically closed. The same statute exempts law enforcement, active military on duty, and other authorized personnel from the listed location restrictions. [1][3]
• Private property owners, including businesses, can independently exclude firearms through compliant signage or a direct verbal or written request; a carrier who refuses to leave after being told to do so risks a separate criminal-trespass charge on top of any weapons violation. Posted-property rules apply the same way to permitless carriers and CWP holders alike. [1][3]

State Preemption and Local Rules

• State law broadly preempts local firearm regulation, but specified local discharge and government-property authority remains. Posted private-property rules are enforceable statewide. [3]
• Section 23-31-510 bars any county, municipality, or other political subdivision from enacting a regulation or ordinance touching the transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, or transportation of firearms, ammunition, or firearm components. The statute carves out only one specific local-discharge scenario: a city or county may not restrict a landowner who discharges a firearm on at least twenty-five contiguous acres of the landowner's own property to defend against an animal that reasonably appears to threaten the landowner's family, employees, the public, or the property. Any local discharge ordinance that fails to exclude that scenario is unenforceable as applied to it; a general local discharge ordinance that does carve out that scenario remains otherwise enforceable, so cities can still regulate ordinary discharge (for example, within city limits) even under this broad preemption. [3]

• Do not assume a city or county may impose its own purchase, registration, storage, or carry rules; state preemption is broad. [3]
• General local discharge ordinances can still apply outside the twenty-five-acre, animal-threat carve-out. [3]

Before Completing a Private Firearm Sale in South Carolina

• Verify identity, residency, age, and eligibility before a private transfer. [4][8]
• Confirm that you are at least eighteen and legally eligible before permitless carry. [1]
• Consider an optional CWP for reciprocity and statutory benefits. [2]
• Check the full prohibited-location list and compliant signage before carrying. [1][3]
• Complete federal compliance before receiving an NFA firearm, and confirm South Carolina law separately permits the specific NFA item before applying. [11][4]
• Store firearms securely and retain serial-number records. [4]
• Report a lost or stolen firearm, rifle, or shotgun to local law enforcement within ten days of discovery, as required since December 1, 2025. [3]
• If a past felony conviction applies, confirm whether it was expunged, pardoned, or had civil rights restored before assuming firearm possession is lawful. [4]

Official South Carolina Firearm Law Resources

South Carolina Gun Law FAQ

Sources

1. 1. Constitutional Carry GuidanceSouth Carolina Law Enforcement Division. State legal FAQ. Accessed August 9, 2026.
2. 2. Concealed Weapons PermitSouth Carolina Law Enforcement Division. State agency. Accessed August 9, 2026.
3. 3. South Carolina Code Title 23, Chapter 31, FirearmsSouth Carolina Legislature. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
4. 4. South Carolina Code Title 16, Chapter 23, Offenses Involving WeaponsSouth Carolina Legislature. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
5. 5. South Carolina Constitution, Article I, Section 20, Right to Keep and Bear ArmsState of South Carolina. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
6. 6. South Carolina Code Section 16-11-440, Protection of Persons and Property ActSouth Carolina Legislature. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
7. 7. South Carolina Code Section 16-11-450, Immunity From Criminal Prosecution and Civil ActionsSouth Carolina Legislature. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
8. 8. Firearms Questions and Answers: Unlicensed PersonsBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
9. 9. Minimum Age for Gun Sales and TransfersBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
10. 10. National Instant Criminal Background Check SystemFederal Bureau of Investigation. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
11. 11. National Firearms ActBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
12. 12. 18 U.S.C. 926A, Interstate Transportation of FirearmsOffice of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.