Wrong information on guns carried on school grounds

During the long discussion on carrying weapons at the October 15 board meeting, Supt. Davis said that the two employees (Director and Asst. Director of Emergency Services) were not carrying openly on school grounds. They carried concealed firearms.

Then he said (at 1:05:30), "they did have the authorization to do so", meaning to carry openly.

No, they didn't. South Carolina state law does not allow civilians to carry handguns in the open.

Had the two employees carried openly, they could have been arrested.

Did Supt. Davis mean that he had authorized them to violate state law? That's probably not what he meant.

State guns laws are very specific, technical, and very difficult to understand. Even those who have studied them closely will listen carefully to a question and then try to answer it by what the law really says.

And whether the two employees were even "authorized by law" to carry on school grounds is open to interpretation and to question. Both men may be retired law-enforcement officers. Federal law allows retired (just just former, but retired) officers to carry. But once they take a job, they are no longer "retired".

And I would posit that a retired law-enforcement officer loses his privilege to carry, once he accepts employment, especially in a school, which is, as I understand it, specifically identified as a Gun-Free Zone under Federal law.

A school superintendent cannot grant permission for an employee to break State or Federal laws.