As an actual NC resident with a dog in the fight, here is my take on it.
1. The current NC concealed carry permit as it stands may offend some folks as it requires:
- a finger print based background check;
- a check with the two mental health hospitals in NC;
- 4 hours of training on firearms safety;
- 4 hours of training on the laws on concealed carry and more importantly, the use of deadly force in North Carolina; and
- live fire qualification.
The latter is fairly open to the discretion of the instructor but most use or borrow heavily from various law enforcement qualification courses. At a minimum it lets the instructor see the applicant is able to safely load, handle and fire a handgun.
2. Many people get their noses bent out of shape over a training requirement. I'm not sure what their objection is to ensuring people who want to conceal carry in public understand how to safely carry a self defense handgun, have some understanding of the pros and cons of different carry methods, and most importantly are aware of when deadly force can be used in self defense in NC.
There are exemptions to the training, for example having evidence of military training on your DD214. However that can be very problematic.
For example a guy came into the gun shop and talked about he had recently been in a convenience store paying for something with a $20 bill, when someone reached around him, grabbed the $20 and ran out the door. A guy next to him, a concealed carry permit holder commented that if that had happened to him, he'd have shot the guy.
Now...I wasn't sure how much of that was alpha male posturing or small wedding tackle compensation, but it was misinformation that needed to be immediately addressed. I commented that if he had, he'd be in jail and looking at a long prison term for murder. I had to point out that in NC you *cannot* use deadly force to prevent a property crime and that it also can get into the weeds around issues such as whether someone in breaking into your attached garage, versus your unattached garage and whether you can assume they intended to commit a crime of violence versus a property crime. I also pointed out you cannot shoot someone who is retreating, even after they stole your $20.
It struck me as a case where this idiot, DD214 or not, really needed to sit through a training session on NC self defense law.
3. In states with reasonable permit and vetting requirements concealed carry permit holders are far less likely to commit crimes than the average citizen.
Studies have been done in several states with CCW permit requirements over the last decade or so showing that concealed carry permit holders are 6-7 times less likely to commit an felony or misdemeanor crime than a law enforcement officer (which doesn't reflect well on LEOs today), who are in turn 3 times less likely to commit crimes than the general public (which is at least partial credit to LEOs). In other words, a CCW permit holder is roughly 20 times less likely to commit a crime than the general public.
That's generally believed to be a product of both being vetted as a non criminal, and also having skin in the game in terms of not wanting to lose that permit and additional privilege to carry concealed.
If we start letting anyone carry concealed, they now have no skin in the game in terms of losing that permit and that ability, on top of a lack of training and knowledge on the use of deadly force.
As it stands now, CCW permits in NC are tied to DMV records. That means that the single time I have been stopped in NC, the highway patrol trooper already knew I had a permit before he ever got to the window of my vehicle. I announced my status as required by law and he told me to just leave it in the holster. He added he liked pulling over permit holders as he knew they were well vetted and were the safest traffic stops he made. As a former LEO from SD, I agree with his assessment.
If we now allow permit-less concealed carry, that level of vetting and related office safety is no longer present. And the increase in people carrying concealed who lack training will inevitably mean someone threatens or shoots someone in "self defense" when there is not adequate (if any) justification.
4. For the rest of us with permits, the blow back of bad self defense shoots or crimes committed by people legally conceal carrying won't end well for us.
It could threaten our privilege to conceal carry in general, and more immediately our ability to carry in businesses. After the farm animal stupid 2A demonstrations a decade or so ago, many businesses down here posted specifically against "open carry", but were silent on the issue of concealed carry and did not ban all firearms carry. Those businesses did so in large part because of the vetting process for permit holders. Remove that requirement and many will rethink their firearms policies.
Even in places like shopping malls that ban all carry, I have never seen any real effort to stop concealed carry beyond posting a sign and giving lip service to it. As noted above, properly permitted concealed carry permit holders pose less risk than LEOs. But again, remove that permit requirement and those businesses will have to rethink their enforcement policies. It's not much of a stretch to see metal detectors or other measures in the future.
5. Owning a handgun and passing a NICS check to buy it doesn't mean a person is *still* not a prohibited person.
Once you buy a gun, if you are convicted of an offense that would preclude buying another firearm, there isn't usually someone who is going to come looking for it to confiscate it. However, if you have a permit and are convicted of an offense that now makes you prohibited from concealed carry you will have to surrender that permit.
Worse, NC repealed its pistol purchase permit requirements a couple years ago. The rationale was a purchase permit for a handgun was valid for 5 years and a person's status could change in that time. So of course rather than shortening it to 30, 60 or even 90 days, they just abolished it. Now, anyone 21 or older can legally buy a handgun from a private citizen, and does not have to present a valid purchase permit or a concealed carry permit to verify they are not a prohibited individual.
6. If you read SB 50 as passed it will actually further limit places where concealed carry permit holders can carry a concealed handgun by removing some of the exceptions.
There's no upside, and in fact downside to this law for people who have or still pursue a concealed carry permit going forward.
7. There are problems that need to be addressed in legislation in NC.
- People are being charged and convicted in NC because a firearm might be fond in a traffic stop in a car where it was covered by a coat, food wrapper, etc. and is thus "concealed", when it would be "not concealed" if it were just laying there in plain sight. If they are otherwise in legal possession of the handgun and its not relevant to the traffic stop, it should not be a chargeable offense (At present, if an officer has any common sense and reasonable discretion they would not arrest based on that anyway, but those LEOs are becoming less common and/or are just given less discretion.)
- Criminals who are conceal carrying during the commission of a crime far more often than not are not charged with the offense anyway. It goes away as part of a plea bargain. In the big picture that means illegally carrying a concealed firearm has no legal consequence for a criminal. Changing the law as proposed doesn't fix that issue.
