South Dakota on Forefront of Gun Rights

South Dakota is now issuing a “gold card” permit for people who want to purchase a firearm. The “gold card” permit would eliminate the requirement to have to go through a background check at the time of the firearm purchase. The idea is that the buyers have already had a background check in order to get a permit, so why would they go through a new background check every time they want to purchase a gun?

According to Brendan Maddox, owner of Dakota Silencer, a firearms dealer in South Dakota, the gold card permit is a “win-win for dealers and customers.” “Ten percent of all the background checks we do get delayed, delayed meaning the customer is not allowed to leave with their purchase,” Maddox said. Maddox says only one percent of those delays actually get denied; the other nine percent usually mean a loss of sales.

The gold card permit can be applied for at their local sheriff’s office. Check out the gun permits in South Dakota.

Another news item we recently discovered about South Dakota is that it issued a record number of concealed carry permits. The roughly 30,000 concealed carry permits issued in 2016 is a record. The previous high, in 2013, was 27,000. January saw the highest volume, with 3,879 permits issued. The secretary of state’s office says there are roughly 96,000 active permit holders, or about one in six adults in South Dakota.

The state’s two most populous counties, Minnehaha and Pennington, each have over 14,000 active permit holders.