Buying and Selling Guns Privately in South Carolina

South Carolina has no statute requiring a background check, license, or state-run approval process for a private, person-to-person firearm transfer. That's confirmed across every agency and advocacy source that tracks the issue, including Giffords Law Center, which flags South Carolina as one of the states where "private" transfers by non-dealers simply aren't subject to a check requirement. What South Carolina does regulate is who you're allowed to sell to.

The controlling statute is S.C. Code § 16-23-30, titled "Sale or delivery of handgun to and possession by certain persons unlawful." It reads:

"(A) It is unlawful for a person to knowingly sell, offer to sell, deliver, lease, rent, barter, exchange, or transport for sale into this State any handgun to: (1) a person who has been convicted of a crime of violence in any court of the United States, the several states, commonwealths, territories, possessions, or the District of Columbia or who is a fugitive from justice or a habitual drunkard or a drug addict or who has been adjudicated mentally incompetent; (2) a person who is a member of a subversive organization; (3) a person under the age of eighteen... or (4) a person who by order of a circuit judge or county court judge of this State has been adjudged unfit to carry or possess a firearm."

Section 16-23-10 defines "crime of violence" narrowly: murder, manslaughter, rape, mayhem, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, housebreaking, assault with intent to kill or rape or rob, assault with a dangerous weapon, or any assault with intent to commit an offense punishable by more than a year. That's a meaningfully shorter list than "any felony," and it matters below.

Separately, S.C. Code § 16-23-530(B) makes it illegal to knowingly sell or transfer a firearm (not just a handgun) to someone who isn't lawfully present in the United States. And none of this operates in a vacuum: federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d) independently bars knowingly transferring any firearm, handgun or long gun, to anyone convicted of any felony, subject to certain domestic violence orders or misdemeanor convictions, dishonorably discharged, an unlawful drug user, or several other categories. State and federal law both apply to the same sale, and federal law is the broader net.

One more piece worth knowing: South Carolina law preempts local gun ordinances outright. Counties and cities cannot pass their own rules regulating firearm transfers under S.C. Code § 23-31-510. Whatever the statehouse says is the floor and the ceiling statewide. A private sale legal in Greenville is legal in Charleston, no county add-ons involved.

A rifle sold off a tailgate in Greenville. You're clearing out a safe and a neighbor offers cash for a bolt-action deer rifle. No dealer, no NICS check, no form. You just need a reasonable basis to believe he's not a felon, a fugitive, or otherwise barred, and you're square with state law. Long guns aren't even covered by § 16-23-30's list, which only names handguns, though the broader federal ban on selling to a prohibited person still reaches rifles and shotguns too.

A pistol deal at a gun show in Columbia. Private sellers set up tables at shows all the time, cash changes hands, nothing gets logged. That's currently legal in South Carolina. A bill prefiled in the 2025-2026 legislative session, H. 3868, would add a new background-check article to Chapter 31 of Title 23 requiring a NICS check before any sale, exchange, or transfer of a firearm anywhere in the state, run through a consenting licensed dealer, plus separate gun-show-specific requirements, with an exemption for transfers between immediate family members. As of this writing it has not been enacted, so the gun-show table-to-table sale, like every other private sale, remains unregulated by the state.

Selling across the river to a buyer in Augusta, Georgia. This is where people get tripped up. A private, in-state sale between two South Carolina residents doesn't require a dealer. The moment your buyer lives out of state, federal law takes over: you cannot hand a firearm directly to an out-of-state private buyer. The gun has to move through a licensed dealer in the buyer's home state, who runs the transfer and the background check on that end. Meeting a Georgia buyer in a Walmart parking lot off I-20 and handing over a pistol yourself is a federal violation regardless of what South Carolina law says.

A Facebook Marketplace meetup in a Spartanburg parking lot. The buyer shows up jittery, can't quite look you in the eye, and asks you to skip any questions. Nothing in South Carolina law requires you to ask for ID or run anything, but § 16-23-30 only requires you to have "knowingly" sold to a prohibited person, and knowledge includes what you willfully ignore when the signs are obvious. If something feels wrong, walk away. There's no state form protecting you if it turns out he was a convicted felon and you chose not to notice.

South Carolina's prohibited-buyer statute carves out one specific group: handguns can go to active or reserve military members, National Guard, State Militia, or ROTC members on duty or training, and minors can be loaned a handgun for supervised instruction under a parent or adult instructor, even though the general rule bars sales to anyone under 18.

There's no family exemption written into current law because there's no background check requirement to exempt anyone from in the first place. The immediate-family carve-out lives inside H. 3868, a bill that, as of this writing, is not law.

A South Carolina Concealed Weapon Permit doesn't change anything about a private sale either direction. A CWP is recognized by the ATF as a NICS-exempt credential when you buy from a licensed dealer, letting the dealer skip the FBI call. It has zero function in a private transfer, because private transfers in South Carolina never had a background check to exempt you from.

The state and federal charges aren't mutually exclusive. A single bad sale, handgun to a known violent felon, can draw both a state prosecution under § 16-23-30/50 and a federal indictment at the same time.

"I have to run a background check myself." No such requirement exists in South Carolina for private sellers. You can choose to route the sale through a licensed dealer for a NICS check if you want the paper trail, but nothing in state law makes you.

"Any felony disqualifies a buyer under state law the same way it does under federal law." Not quite. South Carolina's own handgun statute only lists "crime of violence" convictions, a specific, shorter roster of offenses. Federal law is the one that bars sales to anyone with any felony conviction, any firearm. Both apply at once, so the practical answer is the same (don't sell to a felon), but the state statute by itself is narrower than people assume.

"A bill of sale is legally required." It isn't. South Carolina doesn't mandate a written record for private transfers. Keeping one anyway, with date, buyer's name, and the firearm's serial number, is just good sense if the gun is ever traced back to you.

"My CWP means I don't need a check when buying privately." There was never a check to skip. The permit's NICS-exempt status only matters at an FFL counter.

"South Carolina has basically no gun sale laws." It has fewer than many states, but knowingly arming a prohibited person is still a felony carrying real prison time, state and federal both.

• S.C. Code of Laws, Title 16, Chapter 23 (Offenses Involving Weapons)
• S.C. Code of Laws, Title 23, Chapter 31 (Firearms)
• South Carolina General Assembly, 2025-2026 Session, Bill 3868
• Giffords Law Center: Universal Background Checks in South Carolina

Last Reviewed: October 29, 2026