South Carolina’s open carry law has changed where a gun can legally be kept inside a vehicle, and it has also changed how police officers and drivers are likely to handle that gun during a traffic stop. Greg McCollum walks through how the law on carrying a gun in a car has evolved, what police are likely to do with a gun during a stop even though the law has changed, and what a driver should do if they’re pulled over with a gun in the vehicle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Police Take Your Gun During a Traffic Stop?
Historically, police would always take a person’s gun during a traffic stop. If they see a gun, they are going to seize it. They say it’s for their own safety, so they can make sure the driver can’t touch a loaded weapon. The law has changed in South Carolina though, because historically, even if a person had a concealed carry permit up to a point, and these laws keep changing, a person could have a gun in the car, in the glove box, in the console, or in the trunk, and sometimes people say it had to be locked.
No, it didn’t have to be locked. It just had to be in a closed glove box, closed console, or in the trunk. It couldn’t be in the compartment on the side of the door. It couldn’t be under the seat. It couldn’t be on the dash. It couldn’t be on the passenger seat, that sort of thing.
However, the laws changed. Now South Carolina is an open carry state, which means if police walk up and there’s a gun laying on the seat beside the driver, or on the dash, the idea is they just have to not touch it because it’s not illegal. Greg has been practicing criminal law for decades and has dealt with police officers in a lot of cases, and as a lawyer in the real world, he cannot imagine a police officer in South Carolina not at least taking control of that gun while they’re in that traffic stop and talking to the driver.
Even though the law says a person has the right to have it, in his opinion, police officers are going to take the gun. They may give it back when they leave, but they’re going to take it, or maybe they’re going to ask the driver to put it somewhere. Guns make police officers nervous, so regardless of the law, he would bet they take control of it.
Can You Carry a Gun in Your Car Without a Permit in South Carolina?
The short answer to that is yes. Forever, for decades, for as long as Greg has been a lawyer, a person could carry a gun in their car if it were in the glove box or in the trunk. It didn’t have to be locked, but a person could have a gun in there as long as they weren’t a criminal prohibited from owning a gun, and as long as they were old enough to own a gun.
A gun could be in the glove box, then they changed it to include the console, and then they changed it to allow it in the luggage compartment of an SUV because that’s technically not a trunk, but then all that changed, every bit of it, and now a gun can just be in there. As he understands it, it could be on the seat, between the seats, in the side pocket of the door, under the seat, it could be anywhere. T
hat’s a complete break from the way the law was for decades. But yes, under South Carolina’s open carry law, if a person isn’t legally prohibited from having a gun, they can have the gun anywhere in the car. Which also makes some sense, because before, if the gun was in the glove box and a person needed it, they couldn’t get it out in time. What good is it if it’s in the trunk? Now a person has to get out of the car to get it, and the danger could be outside the car, so how much sense did that make?
Also, as a side note, before the open carry law passed, which Greg believes came into effect around mid-2024, lawmakers have kept tinkering with these laws, changing them a little bit every year. Prior to open carry, if a person had a concealed carry permit, and those are still issued and still valuable to have, they could have the gun in the side door if they had the permit.
But as Greg understands the law now, it’s open carry anywhere in the car, anybody who can legally have a gun can keep it anywhere in the car, and as he understands it, there are no restrictions.
What Should You Do If Police Pull You Over and You Have a Gun in South Carolina?
Greg would say that a person should do the same thing whenever the police pull them over. As a criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina for years, he has a lot of understanding of what police are thinking, or maybe not a better understanding, but he has some sense of what they’re thinking because he has dealt with so many of these cases and encounters. He thinks the normal person driving or riding in a car, when police pull them over, is thinking about themselves, not about the police officer’s perspective.
They’re thinking, “Am I going to get a ticket? Where’s my insurance card? Where’s my driver’s license? Where’s my registration?” They’re just thinking about themselves.
The police officer approaching the car is also thinking about themselves. They’re thinking, “What’s going on in that car? Who is in that car? Is there more than one person in that car? Is that person drunk or sober? Is that person a felon or a law-abiding citizen? Does that person have a weapon?” So as they approach, they’re looking for movements. They’re looking for signs of danger. They’re looking for the driver’s hands, or for the back windows of the vehicle tinted out where they can’t see what’s in there.
Greg’s advice is this: absolutely tell the police that there’s a weapon in the vehicle. But prior to that, what he would do, and this is what he says he would do if he were pulled over, is pull over pretty quickly, not prolong it. Pull over to the side of the road, turn the car off, roll down all the windows, and keep his hands calmly on the steering wheel.
If it’s at night, turn on the inside lights in the car, so as the police officer approaches, the windows are down, the dome lights are on, they can see in the car, they can see the driver looking straight ahead, and they can see the driver’s hands. That way, the danger for the officer is pretty much gone.
Greg shares that he was pulled over not too long ago for speeding, and the trooper laughed because it was the middle of the day and he had his hands on the wheel and said, “Hey, how you doing?” The officer asked for his license and registration, and Greg told him where they were without taking his hands off the wheel, using his head to point instead, saying the registration was in the glove box and his license was in his wallet in his hip pocket.
The officer started laughing and told him to just get it. As it turned out, the officer knew him. But even though it seemed silly, that completely put the officer at ease. Greg says that in that situation, he would tell the officer, “All right, I have a gun. My vehicle registration and insurance card are in that glove box, and the gun is in that glove box,” and then let the officer open the glove box, take the gun out, and then reach in to get the registration, or something similar.
So he would tell them, he wouldn’t be holding the gun, and he would keep his hands where the police could see them. Do you have to tell them you have a gun in there? No. Should you? Greg says he would do it the way he described.
With nearly 30 years of experience and a background as a former prosecutor, Greg McCollum brings a firsthand understanding of how both sides of a traffic stop involving a firearm are likely to play out in South Carolina. That perspective can matter for anyone trying to understand their rights, and their risks, when carrying a gun in their vehicle.
If you have questions about guns in your car during a traffic stop in South Carolina, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.
