SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved Senate Bill 94 that aims to do away with the permitting process for the concealed carry of a handgun.
Representative Craig Tiezen of Rapid City asked members of the committee if they felt comfortable allowing everyone and anyone, visitor and resident, to carry a concealed weapon.
Tiezen, former police chief of Rapid City, quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia when he said that the Second Amendment does indeed have limitations.
Tiezen said it is up to the courts to decide if limitations lawmakers put on citizens are unreasonable. He adds that when those intrusions go too far the courts strike them down. He says the only question is whether South Dakota's limitations are reasonable or not.
He suggested to lawmakers that they ask themselves if the restrictions in South Dakota are unreasonable.
The measure's author, Senator Lance Russell of Hot Springs, says it would not allow people who are currently restricted from getting a handgun, to being able to own and conceal a firearm.
But Executive Director of the South Dakota State's Attorneys Association, Paul Bachand, says by striking the prohibition in the first sentence, the bill does open up carry conceal to people otherwise ineligible under South Dakota statute.
There is a similar House bill also under consideration in the legislature.