Police officers, by and large, want to do a good job. They'd love to keep you safe.
The problem is, well, they just can't. They can't be where you need them when you need them there. There are just too few police officers, too many places, and too many criminals for them to protect you. That means you need to protect yourself, and in North Carolina, that may become a whole lot easier.
As it stands, North Carolina is one of 21 states that still requires some form of a concealed carry permit.
A bill eliminating that just cleared the state Senate.
The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Thursday authorizing gun owners to carry handguns without a permit, moving the legislation to the House.Lawmakers shepherded Senate Bill 50, “Freedom to Carry NC,” through two committee hearings this week. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.
Under the bill, residents of North Carolina who are U.S. citizens at least 18 years of age, and not otherwise prohibited by law would be able to carry concealed handguns without obtaining a permit.
Its primary sponsors are Sens. Danny Britt (R-Hoke, Robeson, Scotland), Warren Daniel (R-Buncombe, Burke, McDowell), and Eddie Settle (R-Alexander, Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin).
The measure passed 26-18 in a party line vote after the Senate adopted five amendments and rejected 11 others. Four Republicans and two Democrats had excused absences. Senators debated the bill for about two hours. Click here to see the text of the bill and each of the amendments, and the results of the various rollcall votes.
North Carolina law currently requires gun owners to obtain permits from their local sheriff’s office in order to carry a concealed handgun. Concealed carry also requires a minimum of eight hours of training.
If passed into law, North Carolina would become the 30th state to allow what proponents call “constitutional carry” — meaning concealed carry without a permit. The legislation would still allow concealed carry permits to be issued “for the purpose of reciprocity when traveling in another state.”
Unsurprisingly, anti-gunners are less than thrilled.
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To them, I'd note that criminals don't get permits but carry guns all the time, so it's not like it's going to empower some kind of behavior that wasn't already happening. It just means that people can carry a gun without having to spend eight hours of their life on a training class that's generally treated more like a check box than an actual learning opportunity.
As it stands, North Carolina already allows open carry without a permit, so this bill would create true constitutional carry, not that abomination they have in Florida where they can carry concealed, but can only open carry under specific circumstances.
That's the good news.
The bad news is, really, not much. The bill includes some language upping the penalty for certain so-called gun crimes, which I'm not thrilled about since it's still just blaming guns to some degree, but it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over and I doubt anyone else is either.
This now kicks the bill over to the House where, hopefully, some traction will happen quickly enough and North Carolinians can finally stop having to deal with the stupid nonsense of going through the state's requirements just to exercise their right to bear arms.
