Petition calling upon members of the General Assembly to finish the work they began by requiring bureaucrats to obey laws enabling citizens to defend themselves

I, the signatory of this petition, do hereby affirm that:

• Whereas our concealed handgun permit law, enacted in 1995, has for nearly twenty years successfully enabled law- abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families, all while experiencing nearly complete absence of abuses by permit-holders;

• Whereas since adopting concealed carry in 1995, the North Carolina violent crime rate tracked by the NC State Bureau of Investigation has dropped by 65.4%, including corresponding drops in murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault;

• Whereas the General Assembly enacted the will of the people by passing numerous bills to expand concealed carry, including House Bill 650 (Session Law 2011-268) and HB 937 (S.L. 2013-369), which dramatically expanded lawful concealed carry into state and municipal parks, restaurants, educational properties (limited), assemblies of people for which admission is charged, state government parking lots and elsewhere;

• Whereas dozens of ideologically motivated local governments have defied the will of the General Assembly and ignored laws requiring statewide uniformity of gun laws, including N.C.G.S. 14-415.23 and 14.409.40, which says in part: “no county or municipality, by ordinance, resolution, or other enactment, shall regulate in any manner the possession, ownership, storage, transfer, sale, purchase, licensing, or registration of firearms, firearms ammunition, components of firearms, dealers in firearms, or dealers in handgun components or parts”;

• Whereas cities including Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and literally dozens of others have either tried to or continue to flout the law by prohibiting lawful concealed carry in municipal parks, properties and elsewhere, thereby placing citizens at risk;

• Whereas numerous sheriffs are exploiting vague language in our concealed handgun law to deny or delay concealed handgun permits for qualified applicants over minor, often ancient issues, thereby preventing them from protecting themselves and their families; and

• Whereas a Superior Court Judge has willfully misinterpreted North Carolina statutes allowing concealed carry in public assemblies, even admitting: “...I do believe it would be unwise and imprudent for firearms to be carried into the State Fair, and if there is some way I can interpret these statutes to prohibit that, I will.”

  I call upon members of the current session of the legislature to pass legislation which:

• Puts “teeth” into North Carolina’s statewide uniformity of firearms (“preemption”) law by establishing at least civil penalties for state and local government bureaucrats who knowingly defy laws enabling lawful citizens to carry firearms for self-protection;

• Requires sheriffs to issue concealed handgun permits to qualified applicants with minor and/or long-passed behavioral issues and infractions, and gives applicants a robust appeal process for denied permits; and

• Repeals our archaic, Jim Crow-era pistol purchase law – a law which has been rendered redundant by improvements to the computerized National Instant Background Check system, and which is now being exploited by sheriffs to arbitrarily deny permits.