Grass Roots North Carolina / Forum For Firearms Education
Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC 27605
877.282.0939 (Phone) 919.573.0354 (Fax) www.GRNC.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release date: February 14, 2023

NC GUN BILLS GET COMMITTEE HEARINGS

Grass Roots North Carolina thanks Republican leaders for sticking to their word

[RALEIGH] With Republican leaders true to their word, legislation to repeal North Carolina’s Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit system and to afford churches which sponsor schools the same security enjoyed by other churches has been scheduled for committee meetings in both the NC House and Senate. Grass Roots North Carolina representatives will available for media interviews. 

Senate Bills 40 (“Purchase Permit Repeal”) and 41 (“Protect Religious Meeting Places”) will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Tuesday (2/14) at 11:00 AM in Legislative Office Building Rm. 544.

House Bills 49 (“Protect Religious Meeting Places”) and 50 (“Purchase Permit Repeal”) will be heard by the House Judiciary 3 Committee meeting Tuesday (2/14) at 3:00 PM in Legislative Office Building Rm. 421.

Said GRNC president Paul Valone:

“Grass Roots North Carolina thanks Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger for moving long-anticipated legislation to repeal our archaic Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit system and to close the loophole which present prevents parishioners from providing armed security at exactly the time religious institutions have increasingly suffered violent attacks. Both of these measures will not only respect the rights of citizens, but will make North Carolina safer.”

Purchase permit repeal will increase safety

Under the present system, sheriffs issue permits which are untraceable slips of paper good for up to 5 years. Because the permits allow handgun buyers to circumnavigate the computerized National Instant Background Check System, it is possible for someone to get a permit, commit a disqualifying crime, and then use the permit to bypass a background check. Repealing the system will result in background checks being done at the time of sale. In recent years, the NC Sheriff’s Association has supported repeal because improvements in mental health reporting to NICS have rendered the system, in their words, “duplicative.”

Claims by gun ban advocates that Missouri experienced increased homicide after repealing its pistol purchase law are false. Said Dr. John R, Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center, “While it is true that the murder rates in Missouri rose 17 percent relative to the rest of the US after the law was changed, it had actually increased by 32 percent during the five years prior to the change.” So in truth, Missouri’s increase in murder rate DECLINED after repealing the purchase permit law.

Closing the “church carry loophole”

The same three senators also introduced Senate Bill 41, which would close the “church carry loophole” by allowing concealed handgun permit-holders to carry in religious institutions which sponsor schools provided curricular or extracurricular activities are not in session. Concealed carry is currently legal in NC churches. But if the church sponsors any type of school, it becomes “educational property” where carry is prohibited.

By closing the church carry loophole, we will be affording churches which sponsor schools exactly the same protection most North Carolina churches have enjoyed since 1995. In recent years, three mass killings in churches have been stopped when armed congregants shot attackers (Colorado Springs, Colorado, 12/9/07; Sutherland Springs, TX, 11/5/17; White Settlement, TX, 12/29/19).