AR-15s Still Popular In North Carolina
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 6 months ago
“I don’t think we’ll take up gun legislation of any type,” said state Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Henderson County Republican first elected to the General Assembly in 2010, the same year Republicans established control of the body.
“To get to a different place on guns, you’d have to have a different mix of legislators — it’s a pretty conservative state,” McGrady said. “I do anticipate we’ll be putting some monies into the school safety issue.”
That would revolve around “hardening” schools — adding security, police officers and other physical measures that would make schools more difficult for a shooter to attack — not measures designed to make it harder to buy guns.
State Rep. Brian Turner, a Democrat who represents part of Buncombe County, said it’s unrealistic to expect the Republican-dominated legislature to impose rules making it harder to get guns when the body opens the 2018 session May 16.
“If we do see something, I would imagine it would probably be along the lines of the hardening of schools and adding additional resource officers,” Turner said. “I think the focus would be less around firearms specifically and more about deterrence and prevention.”
A gun owner and hunter himself, Turner is far from anti-gun. But restrictions on “Title 2 weapons,” such as short-barreled shotguns or suppressors, might make sense, he said.
While North Carolina elected a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, in 2016, it also went overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump, a Republican. On gun issues, the Tar Heel State is reliably conservative, according to Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University.
Cooper acknowledged Florida’s legislature raised the age to buy an AR-15 to 21 after the school shooting, as the shooter was 19, but he said “it’s unlikely we’ll see a lot of movement” in North Carolina.
“I think there was a policy window that opened briefly, but it appears to be closing,” Cooper said. “Florida had a little bit of movement, and people are talking about the issue, but I don’t think there’s a lot of persuasion going on. Even though people are talking about it more, I think both sides are drawing people more firmly into their own camps.”
Gun control legislation is “a particularly tough sell in North Carolina,” which has a strong tradition of hunting and gun ownership.
“We’ve looked to be to the left of some of the country on some issues, but gun rights is not one of those issues,” Cooper said.
Restrictions on suppressors might make sense to State Rep. Brian Turner because he is an idiot. If he is a hunter like he says he is, he would understand the value of hearing and how much damage can be done to it. So I think he is lying. I don’t think he’s a hunter at all.
Moreover, hunting has nothing whatsoever to do with gun rights or the second amendment or the constitution of North Carolina. So I think he just threw in hunting to bolster his creds thinking that we’d buy it. I don’t. I don’t buy any of his claptrap. I wish people would stop mentioning hunting in the context of gun rights. It’s stupid and it makes the person saying it look like an imbecile.
But what I do buy is that the NC legislature will do nothing to enact further restrictions on firearms freedoms without a huge fight. For the sake of everyone, this isn’t a bridge Turner or anyone else wants to cross. The only gun legislation I want to see is constitutional carry and repeal of the CLEO permitting process.
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On May 2, 2018 at 10:47 pm, Russian Troll-bot said:
The whole hunting thing is a dodge. They know that rifles are for the prevention of tyranny. They just don’t like it.
On May 3, 2018 at 8:31 am, Fred said:
Tennessee has had a Republican super majority in the legislature and a Republican governor for years and years now and we’ve been fighting them every step of the way to 1. Not implement more laws and 2. to pass constitutional carry or some form of further liberalizations of carry laws.
And…NOTHING. I’ve given up. We had some primaries this spring and I didn’t even vote. Why would I?
The Republican party is a sham. Liars and scammers. But mostly it’s Beth Harlot’s, er, Harwell’s fault. As speaker of the house, if she wanted pro gun legislation on the floor it would be there in a matter of hours. Every committee is stacked with a majority of republicans. Some are embarrassingly lopsided but during every committee meeting for pro gun legislation suddenly half the Republicans are sick, or called away for family matters or blah blah.
Despite literally 99 percent of them saying that they are pro gun, they are not.
I talked to one of the clowns running for governor about constitutional (or permit-less) carry he actually said that he would defer to police. This was a public forum but almost lit into him anyway. Isn’t the entire point of the 2A so that the king’s men (governor’s men, the police) would have no say so in a man’s bearing of arms?
You should hear the discussions of other policy issues. Most are socialists only they don’t know it and the people just shake their head and smile, enamored at being close to power.
All they did this year on 2A was special carve-outs for corrections ‘officers’ and retired po-po.
Bunch of statists.
I asked my local house rep about Constitutional Carry and he said right to my face; “I’m not interested in that but I’ll tell you about something I am interested in.” He went on to talk about some BS program that rips off the taxpayers for some special interest of his. What an ass.
I’m telling you, if this whole thing goes sideways; TRUST NOBODY.
On May 3, 2018 at 1:11 pm, June J said:
Why are all Democrats elected to office stupid? How can Rep. Turner not know there are already restrictions on suppressors and short barrel shotguns? Is appearing (being?) ignorant part of the Democratic platform?
On May 3, 2018 at 3:07 pm, Pat Hines said:
North Carolina has similar issues with communist inroads that we have in South Carolina. I did most of my growing up years in NC, one of my degrees is from THE UNC.
Like South Carolina, almost all of the left lives in areas surrounding university towns, which includes most of Asheville these days and Buncombe county. My home is 8 miles south of the state line, my parents lived in Hendersonville beginning in 1966, ending when my mother moved in with us due to her advanced age in about 2009. My Greek Orthodox priest was born and raised in Fletcher, just north of Hendersonville. I know the area well. My father, and the movers and shakers in Hendersonville, were all Republicans and hard rock ones, too.
State Rep Turner is completely dependent on the collage vote, some students and almost all of the professors at what is now called UNC Asheville, voted him in. This is why the short residency requirement in order to vote is wrong and critical to communist policies.
On May 4, 2018 at 7:00 am, Jim Wiseman said:
I want to see the force of law are removed from gun-free zone signs in North Carolina. I know, property rights. But the only thing a penalty for carrying in a gun-free zone does is to raise funds for the state. If you’re ticketed for carrying where it’s prohibited, which I have never heard of happening, only the state benefits. The property owner doesn’t. We should be like Georgia, where it’s only a trespassing charge if you refuse to leave if you’re carrying.