This is an open letter to all North Carolina State Senators and members of the House of Representatives.  I am speaking out in favor of H.B. 69, the “Constitutional Carry Act.”  I have spoken out with open letters of this sort before.  At one time, I had to relinquish all health records to the county sheriff (CLEO) in order to receive a concealed handgun permit.  Now, based on recent changes to N.C. law, this is necessary even for handgun purchases for those who don’t hold a CHP.

As we have covered even recently, mental health professionals have told us in no uncertain terms that mental maladies have no correspondence to propensity to violence, and when people choose to commit suicide, they don’t usually use guns.  They have also told us that the mental health profession cannot bear the burden you are trying to place on them, as they don’t have the wherewithal to predict violent behavior.  Science doesn’t do that.  These mental health checks are helping no one, and yet like a pagan village worshipping a witch doctor, legislators nationwide still turn to doctors to predict the future for them.  I’m almost waiting for a new N.C. law invoking participation of palm readers.  The notion that violence has to do with things completely beyond the control of legislating apparently doesn’t occur to lawmakers.

Upon renewal of my permit to carry after moving from one county to another within the last two years, I had to reapply for a new permit from my CLEO, and instead of just signing over my medical records to him and filling out the necessary countless forms, I had an even higher mountain of paperwork to complete.  But these forms do nothing to effect change in anything, as you certainly have to know by now.  Only the peaceable and law abiding follow such laws and processes.

I and my readers have asked, even demanded, that you rid North Carolina of these bigoted, prejudiced and ridiculous Jim Crow era laws like CLEO permitting of handgun purchases and concealed carry.  We still demand this, but there is another bill that needs our attention as well.  It is H.B. 69, Constitutional Carry Act.  We are speaking out in support of it.  Oh, you’re going to see the usual hysterical naysayers and end-of- the-world doomsday prophecies, and are even seeing them now, the most recent being from the Raleigh News and Observer.

A proposed bill from 10 Republicans in the General Assembly to remove North Carolina’s concealed-carry permit requirement for handguns has the odor of a gun-lobby sponsored maneuver. There’s no other way to say it: the idea is absurd, and dangerous. One hopes GOP leaders will stop this idea before it goes any further.

Goofy measures like this one usually get put away by party leaders, but in this environment, who knows?

Basically, the proposal would remove the requirement, with some exceptions and footnotes. The very complexity of those things shows how ludicrous the bill is. For example, concealed carry permits wouldn’t be required anymore, except it would still be illegal to carry a concealed handgun at a parade or funeral, in a place where alcohol is sold and consumed, while drinking alcohol, on picket lines and at certain demonstrations — and this is interesting — on the grounds of the State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion or the governor’s western residence in the mountains.

Anything that loosens already minimal gun laws should not be enacted. North Caroilna gun owners, and there are tens of thousands of them, can indulge their fancy for guns at a multitude of ranges, with hunting, collecting and other gun-connected pastimes. Asking those who want to carry concealed weapons to get a permit to do so is hardly a great burden, especially considering the risk of a gun in the wrong hands.

I suggest that you replace the idea of a concealed handgun permit with a permit to preach, say, a sermon on the deity of Christ.  So in the future, it shouldn’t be too much of a burden to obtain state approval for your sermon topics.  And if you did what I suggested, you see how awful this sounds.  You see, the editorial board at the Raleigh News and Observer don’t actually believe that personal defense is a right.  They think it’s a privilege.  They think what they do is a right, but defending one’s personal safety or the safety of a family warrants approval by the state.

But my regular readers have seen that self defense is not only a right, it is a duty ordered by God Himself because man is made in God’s image.  It’s loss is not to be taken lightly, and that image of God is to be cherished and protected.  As for the more practical and pedestrian considerations, the Raleigh News and Observer editorial board underscores just how out of touch they are with North Carolinians when they say that there are “tens of thousands” of gun owners, and that we can “indulge our fancies at ranges.”  There are hundreds of thousands of us, and ranges have nothing whatsoever to do with the conversation.

Moreover, it should be noted that while I have followed virtually every change to state laws in the U.S. concerning constitutional carry and open carry in the past four or five years, and written about most of them, in every instance of changes like this, the hysterical doomsday prophets always tell awful stories of blood running in the streets, wild west shootouts and rampant crime.  And it never happens.  I have quotes from CLEOs I can share if you would like where they all said that it ended up “much ado about nothing.”

Except it is about something, isn’t it?  Yes, we all know what this is really about.  Revenue.  That’s right.  Some LEOs have even shared this concern.

But opponents said it would have serious financial consequences for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which administers firearms licenses issued under the Oklahoma Self Defense Act.

A fiscal analysis performed for the House indicates the measure would reduce OSBI’s revenue by at least $6 million and would lead to the loss of jobs and reduced operating expenses at the agency.

The reduction in revenue would be because firearms owners would no longer seek concealed carry licenses – which cost $100 for initial 5-year license and $200 for 10 years – if they could carry a gun openly without a license. There are now more than 238,300 Oklahomans with active licenses to carry handguns, according to state figures.

I suspect that a little truth-telling by North Carolina CLEOs would yield similar results.  What a miserable excuse for a law.  Filling out paperwork, relinquishing medical records, causing lost days at work because of appointments at the Sheriff’s department, and clerks sitting in offices pushing paperwork – all for revenue and a jobs program for people who should be working in business or industry.  This is just absolutely wretched.

But you can begin to end all of this onerous, nanny-state, control freak collectivism by passing H.B. 69.  And then you can rid yourselves of the embarrassing Jim Crow era laws currently on the books as we speak.  Even if this doesn’t pass with enough votes to override a veto by this progressive governor, let it move out of committee and get a vote on the floor.  That way, we’ll see who we need to target for replacement in the next election.  We will ultimately win this fight, now or later, and the only question is this.  Will you be on the winning side with us?

Prior:

An Open Letter To North Carolina State Senators On The New Mental Health Screening For Handgun Purchases

North Carolina Constitutional Carry Bill