After replacing Kristi Noem as governor of South Dakota a couple of months ago when she went to work for the Donald Trump administration, Republican Larry Rhoden has come out swinging with signatures on three pro-gun-rights bills while asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to modify the law requiring a seven-day waiting period to purchase firearms and associated accessories, including silencers, over state lines.

Word of these actions came from Rhoden’s office in Pierre, providing a stark contrast to how Democrat governors in states such as Massachusetts, California, Oregon and Washington. According to Rhoden’s office, the bills signed by the new governor were:

• SB 100, which limits the imposition of restrictions on the carrying of a concealed pistol and other items of self-defense while on the campus of a public institution of higher education.
• HB 1218, which addresses the imposition of firearm restrictions on certain employees, officers, volunteers, and other individuals.
• HB 1222, which expands the authorized carrying, possession, and storage of a concealed pistol.

While inking the bills, Rhoden’s outreach to Bondi and Acting ATF Director Patel—he’s also heading the FBI—has national implications. Easing restrictions on suppressors would benefit law-abiding gun owners across the country, not just in South Dakota.

In his letter to Bondi and Patel, Gov. Rhoden wrote, “I write to you in reference to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” which he issued on February 7, 2025…One particular federal rule merits review: 27 CFR § 478.96. This statute pertains to out-of-state and mail order sales. This rule, which was established in 1968, places an unnecessary restriction on the Second Amendment rights of the American people. One part of the rule requires an arbitrary seven-day waiting period after notice is provided to local law enforcement before firearms and related accessories can be shipped.

“I simply ask that you strike the seven-day waiting period so that law-abiding Americans, who have already undergone a Brady background check, can exercise their Second Amendment rights without unnecessary delay.”

The letter was dated March 24.

A South Dakota native, Rhoden served in the state House of Representatives from 2001 to 2008, during which time he was majority leader for four years, according to a Wikipedia biography. He moved on to serve in the state Senate. From 2019 to this year, he served as lieutenant governor, and when Noem was tapped to become Homeland Security secretary, Rhoden took over the reins in South Dakota.

His pro-rights approach includes support for a bill to arm volunteer security in schools and, again according to the biography, he “sponsored a legislative finding that the ‘Founding Fathers freely and willingly abjured all legislative and executive authority to regulate gun ownership and usage… to individual citizens,’”

According to his office, Gov. Rhoden visited Silencer Central in Sioux Falls, where he learned from CEO Brandon Maddox about an outdated federal rule from the 1960s which imposes an arbitrary seven-day waiting period before they can ship their products.

Rhoden’s actions provide a remarkable contrast to what is happening one state away, in Colorado. There, as reported by the Denver Post, the state House of Representatives just passed Senate Bill 25-003 on a 36-28 vote to restrict sales of many semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines. Only people who pass a background check and complete a state-approved gun safety training course will be permitted to buy such guns in the future, if Democrat Gov. Jared Polis signs the legislation, which he appears poised to do.

The measure will take effect Aug. 1, 2026.

Exempted from the ban are rifles “designed to accept, and capable of operating only with .22 or lower caliber rimfire ammunition, unless the firearm has a separate upper and lower receiver.” Also excluded are popular rifles from such companies as Browning, Remington and Ruger.

According to a bill summary, “the prohibition does not apply to the transfer or sale of a specified semiautomatic firearm to, and receipt or purchase of a specified semiautomatic firearm by, a person who:

• Completed a hunter education course certified by the division of parks and wildlife and, within 5 years before making the purchase, completed a basic firearms safety course;
• Within 5 years before making the purchase, completed an extended firearms safety course; or
• Completed an extended firearms safety course more than 5 years before making the purchase and completed a basic firearms safety course within 5 years before making the purchase.”

The difference between South Dakota and Colorado illustrates the political/philosophical chasm between Republican-controlled states, and those states under a Democrat administration.

Count Washington in the latter column, where the state Senate on Tuesday was scheduled to hear public testimony on House Bill 1136, which would require a permit-to-purchase, issued by the State Patrol, in order to buy a firearm. To acquire a permit, a Washington citizen would first have to take a state-approved safety training course, to include a live-fire exercise, and pass a background check.

The Center Square detailed several potential problems with the legislation, not the least of which is the additional manpower the State Patrol will need to make it all work. And then there is the concern about delays, illustrated by the Center Square’s reference to the murder of Carol Bowne in 2015, in far away New Jersey. She had applied for a gun permit, and 42 days later still hadn’t received it because the application languished with the Berlin Township police, which should have processed it within 30 days.

Bowne was brutally stabbed to death in her own driveway by the man she had a protection order against, and whose behavior prompted her to want a gun.

Evergreen State Democrats, and for that matter, Democrats in the Centennial State, all seem to want to turn their western landscapes into New Jersey, where gun laws are concerned.

The legislation in Colorado and Washington, should it become law, is bound to draw lawsuits.

On the other hand, legislation signed by Gov. Rhoden in South Dakota is not likely to face legal challenge.

About Dave Workman