North Carolina finally gets HR937 done. John Richardson has the word on the agreement, which is now on the way to Governor McCrory. It’s quite disappointing that they had to leave the Permit to Purchase provision stand, but it probably wasn’t worth sacrificing the rest of the bill over that. One wonders whether North Carolina will ever get rid of that oddity from the era of Jim Crow.
10 thoughts on “North Carolina Gets Better”
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Now if we can just bludgeon the RINOs in Columbia into following NC’s lead…..
Can someone school me on the justification for the purchase permits (or the argued justification, even if it doesn’t make sense)? It would seem to me that in the age of NICS, they would be wholly unnecessary. Does it just really boil down to revenue for sheriff’s departments, and justification for staffing positions?
The original unwritten justification was that it was a way to keep blacks from having handguns.
The current justification is that sheriffs know more about their community. That might be true in far western Graham County with 7,000 residents but it sure doesn’t apply in Mecklenburg or Wake Counties with their 900,000+ residents.
I think ultimately it was a power issue. The sheriffs had a power they didn’t want to give up even if it was made redundant by NICS.
Don’t forget money. There’s plenty of money spent to get those permits–it’s a good revenue maker.
Even though the pistol purchase permit system was retained, individual sheriffs won’t be able to limit how many you get or how frequent. They also have 14 days to either get you the permit or deny you.
A denial of a permit bring withs it a whole boatload of work for the sheriff. No longer can he or she say you don’t meet the requirements. Now they will have to say exactly why you were denied and back it up with chapter and verse from the NC General Statutes. In other words, they can’t just say Billy Bob is trailer trash and everyone knows it and he don’t need a pistol anyhow.
The feeling is that the paperwork requirements will become so onerous that the sheriffs themselves will be asking that the system is canned.
“The feeling is that the paperwork requirements will become so onerous that the sheriffs themselves will be asking that the system is canned.”
As a non-NCer, that is also the impression I’m left with when I look at these changes to your state’s purchase permit laws.
The rest of the bill makes important improvements re: carrying in restaurants and other places. Overall, good show, North Carolina.
So it does fix the one county’s problem where the Sheriff just won’t schedule you for an “interview” for an onerously long time?
It takes away the financial incentive. All of a sudden, the purchase permit, which is capped at a $5 fee by law, costs a heck of a lot more to comply with the record keeping requirements. GRNC did a really smart thing here. “It’s about safety? Fine, lets make it about safety.” They are playing the long game, IMHO.
Thanks, John. And thanks for your good coverage of this issue. Given that they just couldn’t let go this time … hopefully the new bill will create such a workload that the sheriffs will support repeal of the permitting system.
Yes, now I’ll actually go and get my permit since the laws are fixed somewhat.