Tuesday, May 20, 2008

SC teens: armed and voting

Our state Supreme Court has upheld a law lowering the minimum age for possession of a firearm to 18.

But you still can't drink till you're 21.

'By expressly allowing the regulation of the sale of alcoholic beverages to the 18-to-20-year-old age group and not stating any other situation in which the General Assembly may restrict the rights of this age group, the state constitution precludes the General Assembly from prohibiting this age group’s possession of handguns,' Justice James Moore wrote for the court...

State Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, who authored the new law allowing handgun possession by those who are least 18, said Monday that South Carolina was the only southern state to have the higher age limit.

“I see it as a self-defense issue,” he said.

He said if his daughter, when she was 19 or 20, was driving his car, which had a gun in the glove compartment, she could have been charged under the old law even though it would have been legal for him.

No comments:

Post a Comment