From the South Carolina Legal professional Normal July 9 View:
We acquired your letter requesting the Legal professional Normal’s opinion on whether or not South Carolina Code Part 16-23-420 prohibits a person from carrying a firearm in a public car parking zone or car parking zone….
Part 16-23-420 supplies in related half:
… It shall be illegal for any individual to own a firearm of any form on any premises or property owned, operated or managed by a personal or public faculty, school, college, technical institute, different post-secondary establishment or any public faculty with out permission of such premises or The categorical permission of the property authority. The provisions of this subsection regarding any premises or property owned, operated, or managed by a personal or public faculty, school, college, technical institute, or different postsecondary establishment shall not apply the place a firearm stays on the premises of a manned or manned faculty. A motorcar and secured in a closed glove field, closed console, closed trunk, or in a closed container secured by integral fasteners and transported within the trunk of the automobile…
The opinion’s conclusion (primarily based on previous opinions) that “any premises or property owned, operated, or managed” solely modifies “colleges, faculties…” and never “publicly owned buildings”; due to this fact, the statute shouldn’t be restricted to non-school/ Firearms “surrounding premises” of faculty buildings. It was then concluded that parking heaps shouldn’t depend as “buildings”[s]” When it comes to rules:
Black’s Regulation Dictionary Outline a constructing as “[a] Buildings with partitions and roofs, esp. A everlasting construction.
As as to if a car parking zone qualifies as a constructing used underneath Part 16-23-420(A), we imagine that could be a nearer query. Black’s Regulation Dictionary The time period “car parking zone” shouldn’t be outlined; nonetheless, Webster’s English Dictionary Outline a car parking zone as “a constructing wherein individuals normally pay to park their vehicles, vehicles, and many others.” Though the definition makes use of the phrase “constructing,” we imagine {that a} courtroom might maintain {that a} car parking zone wouldn’t be thought of a constructing underneath this statute as a result of to do in any other case would end in a consequence that was clearly unintended by the Normal Meeting.
Like a car parking zone, the primary objective of a parking storage is to offer parking areas for automobiles. Deciphering the plain language of the statute to incorporate parking heaps throughout the time period “constructing” however not parking heaps would end in inconsistent software of firearms bans in public buildings.
Moreover, South Carolina Code Part 16-23-20(D) expressly permits an individual who lawfully possesses a firearm to retailer it wherever in a automobile, whether or not occupied or unoccupied. Deciphering this statute along with the ban on firearms in public buildings, we imagine the courts will discover that the 2 statutes might be understood harmoniously by discovering that the time period “constructing” doesn’t embody a car parking zone. Primarily based on the foregoing, we imagine {that a} courtroom might maintain that the prohibition of firearms in public buildings underneath Part 16-23-420(A) doesn’t embody public parking heaps….
