The state’s policy of concealed-carry restrictions dates to at least the winter of 1864-65, when the Dakota Territorial Legislature approved an outright ban on concealed weapons.
The ban remained in effect until 1935, when South Dakota law was changed to allow for the carrying of concealed weapons with a license.
Today, a permit is still required to carry a concealed pistol or revolver in South Dakota. But several pending pieces of legislation would repeal the permit requirement, and while new Gov. Kristi Noem has not promised to sign any of the bills, she has indicated her willingness to consider them. Her immediate predecessor and fellow Republican, Dennis Daugaard, vetoed similar legislation.
Thursday, the first of the new bills to receive consideration advanced out of a state Senate committee on a 4-3 vote. It will next be considered by the full Senate.
“We're not trying to create a situation in which South Dakota is the Wild West," said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, during the committee hearing. "We're simply trying to create a situation in which we recognize that the Second Amendment is paramount and will not be infringed."
'Barbarous and unlawful'
In the real, historical Wild West, concealed-carry bans were commonplace, according to Robert Spitzer, a professor for the State University of New York College at Cortland and the author of several books on gun control.
While the open carrying of firearms has historically been legal in many states, including South Dakota, Spitzer said all but four U.S. states had outlawed the carrying of concealed weapons by the start of the 20th century.
“Some of the laws were written with a preface that explained that they viewed the whole idea of concealed carry as evil, as bad,” Spitzer said. “And if you were carrying a
