S Carolina senators keep alive open carry gun bill for 2021

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)– A small group of South Carolina senators has approved a bill that would allow licensed people to openly carry pistols and not hide them under a jacket. The 3-2 vote Thursday along party lines kept alive hopes in 2021 that the Senate could pass the House-approved bill. The proposal allows so-called open carry of guns by people who already have a state-issued concealed weapons permit. To have a chance to become a law this year, the bill would still have to make it through the full Senate Judiciary Committee and a Senate floor debate with just six days left in the session.