Is a Parking Structure a Building, When It Comes to Ban on Gun Possession "in Any Publicly Owned Building"?

From a South Carolina Attorney General July 9 opinion:

We received your letter requesting an Attorney General's opinion regarding whether section 16-23-420 of the South Carolina Code prohibits a person from carrying a firearm in a publicly owned parking lot or publicly owned parking garage….

Section 16-23-420 provides in relevant part:

… It is unlawful for a person to possess a firearm of any kind on any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by a private or public school, college, university, technical college, other post-secondary institution, or in any publicly owned building, without the express permission of the authorities in charge of the premises or property. The provisions of this subsection related to any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by a private or public school, college, university, technical college, or other post-secondary institution, do not apply to when the firearm remains inside an attended or locked motor vehicle and is secured in a closed glove compartment, closed console, closed trunk, or in a closed container secured by an integral fastener and transported in the luggage compartment of the vehicle…..

The opinion concluded (relying on a past opinion that) "any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by" modifies only "school, college, …," and not "publicly owned building"; because of that, the statute doesn't limit firearm possession in non-school/college buildings' "surrounding premises." It then went on to conclude that parking garages shouldn't count as "building[s]" for purposes of the statute:

Black's Law Dictionary defines a building as "[a] structure with walls and a roof, esp. a permanent structure." We believe it is plain a parking lot would not be considered a building in accordance with its usual and customary meaning….

As to whether a parking garage qualifies as a building as used in section 16-23-420(A), we believe this is a closer question. Black's Law Dictionary does not define the term "parking garage"; however, Merriam-Webster English Dictionary defines a parking garage as "a building in which people usually pay to park their cars, trucks, etc." Despite this definition's use of the word building, we nevertheless believe a court would likely find a parking garage would not be considered a building under this statute because to hold otherwise would lead to a result clearly unintended by the General Assembly.

Like a parking lot, a parking garage's primary purpose is to provide parking for vehicles. To interpret the plain language of the statute as encompassing parking garages in the term building while excluding parking lots would result in an inconsistent application of the firearm prohibition in publicly owned buildings.

Moreover, section 16-23-20(D) of the South Carolina Code expressly grants a person legally possessing a firearm to store it anywhere in a vehicle, whether occupied or unoccupied. Construing this statute together with the firearm prohibition in publicly owned buildings, we believe a court would hold these two statutes can be read harmoniously by finding the term building does not encompass parking garages. Based on the foregoing, we believe a court would likely find the prohibition of firearms in publicly owned buildings under section 16-23-420(A) does not encompass publicly owned parking garages….