CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During a legislative session with very little bipartisanship on guns, one issue stands out as different.
Efforts to promote firearms storage have slowly gained traction on both sides of the aisle through a new program from the governor’s office and a bipartisan-sponsored state House bill. Some activists and lawmakers alike are hopeful that both initiatives, which focus on education and financial incentives, will contribute to preventing gun deaths and encouraging responsible gun ownership.
Many researchers consider safe firearms storage an effective way to reduce gun injuries and deaths, yet more than half of gun owners across the country do not safely store their guns, according to a 2018 John Hopkins University study.
In an effort to bridge this gap on safe firearms storage, Gov. Roy Cooper this month announced a gun storage initiative called NC SAFE. Using existing state funding, the campaign centers around educating North Carolinians about secure firearm storage and distributing gun locks and safes.
The governor’s program was a great start to promoting firearms storage safety, said Becky Ceartas, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, but there’s still room for improvement. Namely, she said, the program should be extended past the slated endpoint in January to ensure more people can learn about safe storage.
On the other side of the aisle, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature last month overrode Cooper’s veto of a bill allowing handguns to be purchased without a permit. That new law also included provisions to educate communities around the state about gun storage practices. Sam Chan, a spokesperson for Cooper, said NC SAFE was already in development before the bill was passed.
Now, another bill related to firearms storage is making its way through the N.C. House, this time with bipartisan support. Sponsored by Reps. Erin Paré, John Bell, Jay Adams and Allison Dahle — three Republicans and one Democrat — House Bill 56 creates a temporary one-year sales tax exemption for firearms storage equipment. The original version of the bill outlined a tax credit for purchasing firearm safety devices, but it is no longer included.
Paré saw the dangers of unsafe storage in her district when a student fired a gun in a classroom last year, resulting in an adult being charged with improperly storing a firearm around a minor. That incident highlighted the need for the bill, Paré said in an interview with The News & Observer.
She said the bill is a “common sense measure” that has garnered support from the most conservative and left-leaning lawmakers, she said, because it implements a “carrot instead of a stick” tactic for encouraging responsible gun ownership.
“The issue of firearms always gets passion from both sides,” Paré, who is a gun owner, said. “I think that this issue in particular about safety is a good sweet spot.”
With the legislative session winding down, there isn’t too much time left for the bill to make it into law in this session, she said. Because of the support the bill has, she said it would be easy to get through the House. As of Tuesday, Paré hadn’t yet had conversations with Senate leadership about passing the bill.
If the bill doesn’t pass, Paré plans to try again.
Instead of a system based on “forced compliance,” the sales tax exemption and storage education campaigns promote “a system based on freedom,” said Paul Valone, president of gun rights group Grassroots NC.
“Those are the things that will actually save lives because they’re done voluntarily and they’re done by education, not by trying to mandate something,” Valone said.
Training gun owners how to properly handle and secure a firearm should be a larger priority than trying to restrict access to guns, Valone said. There are numerous programs in North Carolina run by organizations like the National Rifle Association to learn from certified firearms instructors, he said.
Responsible gun owners understand the importance of storing a gun safely, Ceartas said, but those who aren’t educated may incorrectly believe that hiding a gun is secure enough. That belief in the responsibility to store firearms safely is what is uniting lawmakers, she said.
“It’s a bipartisan issue because there are firearm owners from both parties who think that safe storage is an important part of responsible gun ownership.” she said.
However, Valone said there isn’t much bipartisanship when it comes to mandating gun storage. Every firearms storage system is a compromise “between security and speed,” he said, but efforts to mandate the practice would go too far.
“You can’t unlock a gun and then load it in time for self defense when seconds count,” he said.
Eight states and the District of Columbia all have mandates for secure firearms storage. Child access prevention laws — policies that holds a person liable for not securing a firearm properly if a child accesses it — have also been passed in 27 states, including North Carolina, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Efforts to require secure firearms storage have also taken place at the national level with Ethan’s Law, named after a Connecticut teen who was killed by a gun that was not stored securely in 2018. The legislation was introduced this year in Congress by a group of lawmakers, nearly all Democrats.
Incremental progress is better than no progress at all, said Raleigh City Council member Megan Patton. The council member, who is also involved with gun safety group Moms Demand Action, said encouraging secure firearms storage is a great topic to coalesce around for people on both sides of the issue.
Patton’s district on the Raleigh City Council includes the Hedingham neighborhood, where a 15-year-old is suspected in the shooting deaths of five people last year. Although she said she couldn’t speak to how the emphasis on safe storage could have directly affected that shooting, she said the initiatives will make positive change across the city.
“If they prevent even one death, then it’s worth it,” Patton said.
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