RALEIGH, N.C. — Advocates who oppose legislation that would repeal the state’s permit system for buying handguns said at a virtual press event Monday that the law changes would pose safety risks to North Carolinians and disproportionately affect people of color and rural communities.
A handful of bills making their way through the state General Assembly this session would make changes to the state’s gun laws, including getting rid of the state’s permitting system for the sale of handguns and allowing people with concealed carry permits to carry handguns into places of worship that also serve as schools.
Lawmakers proposed similar legislation last year, but Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the measures.
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (NCGV), a statewide nonprofit and advocacy group, and A Better Chance A Better Community (ABC2), an advocacy organization based in Halifax County, hosted the press event Monday. It included eight panelists — ranging from racial justice advocates to gun owners to survivors of gun violence — who oppose the proposed laws.
Panelists opposed the idea that current laws are racist
Several panelists, most of whom were people of color, took aim at lawmakers’ rhetoric suggesting that the law currently on the books, which requires anyone buying a handgun to obtain a permit from their local sheriff’s office, is racist and rooted in Jim Crow-era policies that make it harder for Black people to buy guns.
State Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican who is a primary sponsor of Senate Bill 41, has said that the permit law “should have been done away with a very long time ago,” The News & Observer reported.
“This act is a disregard to community safety and has nothing to do with racial equity,” Chester B. Williams, chief empowerment officer at ABC2, said at Monday’s event. “I’m appalled that there are lawmakers using this rhetoric to say otherwise.”
Instead, Williams and other panelists said, repealing the current laws would disproportionately harm people of color, who, the panelists said, are more likely to be affected by homicides.
According to a report published by NCGV, Black, non-Hispanic North Carolinians accounted for 67% of homicide victims in the state in 2018, despite making up a smaller proportion of the state’s population. If the permit laws are repealed, panelists said, gun violence could get worse.
“The pistol purchase and permitting system is saving lives throughout North Carolina by preventing homicides that disproportionately affect people of color,” Williams said.
If repealed, federal background checks would remain
If the state’s permit system is repealed, private gun sales would no longer require a background check, The N&O reported. Currently, the law applies to both public and private sales.
Britt has said private sales represent “very, very, very small percentage” of gun sales.
Guns purchased through a federally licensed dealer would still require a background check if the state permit law is repealed.
But panelists said Monday that would not be enough to curb gun violence, citing a 2020 American Journal of Public Health study that found gun purchaser licensing laws coupled with comprehensive background check requirements “were consistently associated with lower firearm homicide and suicide rates,” while states just requiring background checks, and not permit laws, were not associated with those outcomes.
“Why on earth would you choose to repeal one of the life-saving laws that we have, that has been proven to prevent gun violence at a time when gun-related deaths are at an all-time high?” said Becky Ceartas, executive director of NCGV.
Opponents of the proposed legislation have said requiring a local sheriff’s office to sign off on a permit provides extra security and helps prevent guns from ending up in the wrong hands, The N&O reported.
Supporters, including Britt, have said the current system creates unnecessary burdens within the gun-buying process.
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(News & Observer reporter Avi Bajpai contributed to this story.)
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