Gun rights measures, including repeal of pistol permit law, passed by NC Senate
The North Carolina Senate passed a package of gun rights bills Thursday that includes a measure that would repeal the state’s permit law for buying handguns.
Senate Bill 41, named “Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections,” passed the chamber along party lines, 29-19, and now heads to the House.
Originally filed as three separate bills, the measures approved by the Senate on Thursday were combined into a single bill by a committee this week before moving forward.
The combined measure would get rid of the permitting system for the sale of handguns. It would allow people going to places of worship that also serve as schools, or have attached schools, to carry concealed handguns for their protection. And it would launch a two-year awareness initiative on safe firearm storage.
Lawmakers in the House advanced the same measures through committees this week, still filed separately, and approved the bill expanding concealed carry in religious meeting places on Wednesday.
Extensive debate on permit repeal
GOP lawmakers tried to repeal the permit requirement in 2021, but that effort was blocked by Gov. Roy Cooper, who vetoed the bill and said the permitting system was helping reduce gun homicides and suicides, and that the state couldn’t “afford to repeal a system that works to save lives.”
The current law requires anyone buying a handgun to first obtain a permit from their local sheriff’s office. The permit process includes a background check.
Republicans who want to remove the permit requirement say that it imposes an arbitrary and unnecessary impediment on people trying to obtain a handgun. Supporters of the permitting system, which applies to all sales, including private ones, say it’s an important tool law enforcement can use to make sure guns don’t get into the wrong hands.
Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican and primary sponsor of the bill, has said that the permit law should’ve been repealed “a very long time ago.”
During floor debate Thursday, he rejected the notion that the repeal would make communities less safe, as Democrats and gun safety advocates have argued. He said that private sales, which would no longer require a background check if the repeal goes through, comprise a “very, very, very small percentage” of gun sales.
Britt previously also said that the majority of private sales are conducted between “law-abiding citizens,” and that the people who go to a sheriff’s office to get a permit are trying to buy a gun legally.
“Our Second Amendment rights are non-negotiable,” Britt said in a release after the vote. “These are commonsense laws to ensure that the rights of law-abiding citizens are not being infringed.”
Democrats warn of ‘huge new exception’
Democrats, who have expressed concern about the permit repeal allowing private sales to happen without a background check, said that getting rid of a system that requires a background check for all handgun sales is a mistake, and would lead to more gun violence.
Sen. Natasha Marcus, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, said the permitting system wasn’t just effective and necessary, but should probably also be expanded to AR-15s and other long guns.
She said she believed the current law “has averted countless tragedies,” and warned that repealing it would “carve out a huge new exception.”
Marcus and other Democratic senators who spoke in opposition to the permit repeal also proposed amendments to include gun safety measures such as universal background checks and a red flag law in the bill. Republicans have said those measures would impede on Second Amendment rights, and swiftly voted down each of the Democratic amendments.
“I submit to you that Senate Bill 41 is the antithesis of common-sense gun reform,” Marcus said during her floor speech. “It’s a relinquishment of our job to protect North Carolinians from violence.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Gun rights measures, including repeal of pistol permit law, passed by NC Senate."
