Grass Roots North Carolina
Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC 27605
June 20, 2023
The Honorable Phil Berger, Senate President Pro Tempore
16 West Jones Street, Room 2007
Raleigh, NC 27601
Dear Senator Berger:
On behalf of Grass Roots North Carolina and its many supporters, please accept my thanks for the outstanding work done by you and Senate Republicans in passing Senate Bill 41, “Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections.” Thanks to your efforts, leftist urban sheriffs can no longer obstruct handgun purchases, and churches which sponsor schools are better protected from violent sociopaths.
I confess, however, that I was taken aback when I heard you say the following:
“We have passed a substantial bill dealing with some concerns about the Second Amendment. We have done away with the pistol purchase permit which was the number one goal of many of the gun rights groups for a long period of time. I just don’t know if there is a need for us to delve into additional issues dealing with guns.” [Emphasis added]
Your perception of “need” aside, I’m sure you agree that restoration of constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms should not be rationed. Over the decades, Americans’ rights – including the right to carry firearms for self-protection – have been steadily eroded. It was certainly not the Framers’ intention that a governmental permission slip be required to carry firearms, concealed or otherwise. House Bill 189, “Freedom to Carry NC,” is intended to restore the Framers’ ideals.
When you were Senate Minority Leader and I sat in your office, we lamented how the Democrat President Pro Tem of the Senate at the time, Marc Basnight, used his considerable power to crush free exercise of Second Amendment freedoms.
Now you are in the same position, Senator Berger, giving you the opportunity to further contrast yourself with the left-leaning former President Pro Tem. Although HB 189 still resides in the House, comments like those above are not helpful in moving the bill. I strongly urge you to work with Speaker Tim Moore to ensure passage of HB 189.
As you will see in coming days, thousands of North Carolinians have already signed GRNC’s petition for passage of HB 189. I strongly urge you to use the opportunity, created by a supermajority which gun voters helped you secure, to join the twenty-seven other states which have now adopted some form of permitless or “constitutional” concealed carry by supporting passage of HB 189.
Armatissimi e liberissimi,*
F. Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International
Radio host, Guns, Politics and Freedom
* First spoken by Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern power politics, with reference to the universally armed and therefore unconquerable Swiss, Armatissimi e liberissimi means “most armed, most free.” As an expression of the importance of the right to arms to freedom, it is GRNC’s credo.
