Richland County South Carolina’s Democrat Sheriff Leon Lott claims he supports right to carry a gun. He just supports it with a giant asterisk. That asterisk being a permit issued by the government, and only after “proper training.” In other words, he likes a system where bureaucrats like him could arbitrarily deny a carry permit to someone based upon their race, sex, sexual orientation or lack thereof, their politics, or even the way they part their hair.
Now that permitless carry is the law in South Carolina, Sheriff Lott has expressed just how much he’s opposed to allowing law-abiding South Carolina residents to carry without getting a permission slip from his office.
In a statement to WIS-TV, he called permitless carry “a win for the criminals.”
We also reached out to Sheriff Leon Lott for a response to this law. He sent this statement which reads in part:
“I said a prayer last night that Richland County does not turn into the wild wild west,” he said. “This is a win for the criminals, who can now walk around with a gun and law enforcement cannot do anything about it.”
“I support the right to carry and it was already in place with conceal weapons permit and the proper training, but this does nothing to make our communities safer; instead of getting guns off the street we just put more guns on the street,” the statement continues.
A win for the criminals? We must have missed the section of the new law that allows criminals and prohibited persons to carry a firearm legally now. It seems Sheriff Lott doesn’t even know the laws he’s paid to enforce.
At the same time, does Lott really think that allowing Joe and Jane Sixpack to carry a gun — to protect themselves and their families — without jumping through government-erected hoops make the community less safe?
If he’s concerned about criminals, then yes, permitless carry is a quantifiable danger to that community. But it’s not law-abiding folks who are committing the crimes. Wouldn’t it be nice if the sheriff was more concerned about the law-abiding majority in his county than the criminal community?
Meanwhile, not everyone in Richland County agrees with Sheriff Lott and his yes-but support for the right to carry.
Pity the poor lawman. He’s lost his power to deny carry licenses for arbitrary reasons and he really doesn’t like it. It’s no wonder some people in Richland County don’t care much for him or his reelection campaign.
7 Responses
“This is a win for the criminals, who can now walk around with a gun and law enforcement cannot do anything about it.”
That is 100% false.
plus criminals never bothered with permits before when there was a permit required, and law enforcement still didn’t do anything about it until they caught them at which point LE would do something and its exactly the same now – catch them and do something about it when they are caught. Nothing has changed in that aspect. This guy is an idiot.
“I said a prayer last night that Richland County does not turn into the wild wild west,”
a 100% false premise. There has never been any state or county or city that turned into the “wild wild west” because the law said law abiding non-prohibited people could carry a gun without a permit. Will he also pray that the mythical ‘rivers of blood in the streets’ don’t appear because law abiding non-prohibited people carry a gun without a permit? Those have never appeared either.
Seriously man, just come out and admit you pray to posters of Joe Biden and David Hogg and Shannon Watts every night.
Not as familiar with SC as it was never a carry or permit option for NY residents unless they owned property in SC but do the counties collect money from training and permit application/processing like NY? If so it may be as much him bitching about lost revenue.
.40 cal Booger: Well said. This sheriff is an idiot and has no qualms about violating the oath he took nor the rights of good citizens.
I’m so happy I can legally carry now! I’ve been waiting on this day! Now I can commit crimes! Legally!
We should say a prayer too, that his constituents get his message, and then vote accordingly.
I’ll be driving through his County in July on my way to vacation. If I stop for food or fuel, I will not be watching my 6 for the newly minted concealed carriers. I will be aware of the same characters I see in any state. My State (Ohio) became a Constitutional Carry state last year. Crime has not skyrocketed, instead I think it is a downward trend, except for the kids taking a certain brand or two of cars. Even that act has become more dangerous for kids wanting to joy-ride. No longer do some people just give it up. They now have the ability to defend their persons and their property.
Bad guys never needed the permit, nor the training. They just needed to steal one from an unlocked vehicle or some other illegal way. They did not need to fill in the Fed Form, nor did they need to wait for the transfer paperwork, etc. Nothing changed for the potential perpetrator, except the odds of an armed citizenry.
As it has been said here, the criminals never bother to get training or permits. They are the ones that the sheriff should be worried about.