NC NRA Alert

[LAR-15]

orth Carolina Senate Judiciary II Committee to Consider Anti-Gun Database Bill!

Thursday, July 19, 2007


The North Carolina Senate Judiciary II Committee could soon take up House Bill 1287, introduced by State Representative Ronnie Sutton (D-47), which seeks to create a new statewide database to which sheriffs would report all individuals who have been denied a permit to purchase a handgun.

This legislation may seem benign to some law-abiding gun owners, but the devil is in the details. The problem is not, necessarily, with the proposal, but with the current approval process for purchase permits. Originally enacted in 1919--long before anyone imagined the possibility of centralized computer databases of criminal records--the law requires anyone who wishes to purchase a pistol to acquire a permit from the sheriff of the county in which that person resides.

At the time, sheriffs likely had the most immediate access to information that would indicate an applicant had a violent criminal record, so it would seem logical that they would be the best source to try to determine if an individual had a history that indicated he or she should be prohibited from acquiring a handgun.

Today, however, there is a national database law enforcement may access, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), to determine if an individual is statutorily prohibited from purchasing or possessing a handgun--or any firearm, for that matter.

Unfortunately, the current permit to purchase process allows sheriffs to deny a permit not just to people statutorily prohibited from purchasing or possessing a pistol, but also allows denials for random, arbitrary reasons.

Under the current permit process, a permit applicant must not only be free of any statutory disqualifications for purchasing or possessing any firearm--including pistols--but he or she must also prove to the sheriff "by affidavits, oral evidence, or otherwise, as to the good moral character of the applicant." It is this vague standard where problems arise. A sheriff could deny a permit simply because he or she feels the individual should not possess a pistol, for whatever reason.

In fact, some sheriffs appear to have bypassed the General Assembly and enacted their own handgun rationing "law" by restricting the number of permits a law-abiding citizen may acquire in a year. In some cases, that number could be as low as five--even lower than the one-gun-a-month schemes proposed by anti-gun extremists.

It is important to remember that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is protected in both the U.S. and North Carolina Constitutions, and reasons for denying this right must be carefully considered, and carefully spelled out. Federal and state law do this.

Allowing sheriffs to deny a permit to purchase a pistol for anything other than clearly defined standards is contrary to the protections that are constitutionally enshrined.

Not only would HB 1287 establish a new database where arbitrary denials are entered, but the information would remain in the new database for eight (8) years. An individual who has been arbitrarily denied a permit to purchase would have that cloud hanging over him or her every time he or she applies for a permit, even if that person moves to a new county where the sheriff does not have a problem with people possessing handguns for lawful purposes. The new sheriff would still see the applicant was once denied a permit, and may deny based on that little bit of information. Sheriffs are already tasked with a great deal of responsibility, as well as granted a great deal of power and authority. The responsibility of determining who should or should not be permitted to exercise a constitutionally protected right should not weigh on these public servants.

Please contact the members of the Senate Judiciary II Committee and urge them to oppose HB 1287.

Senator Fletcher R Hartsell, Jr. (R-36)
(919) 733-7223
[email protected]

Senator Austin M. Allran (R-42)
(919) 733-5876
[email protected]

Senator Doug Berger (D-7)
(919) 715-8363
[email protected]

Senator Ed Jones (D-4)
(919) 715-3032
[email protected]

Senator Tom Apodaca (R-48)
(919) 733-5745
[email protected]

Senator Bob Atwater (D-18)
(919) 715-3036
[email protected]

Senator Stan Bingham (R-33)
(919) 733-5665
[email protected]

Senator Walter H. Dalton (D-46)
(919) 715-3038
[email protected]

Senator Charlie Smith Dannelly (D-38)
(919) 733-5955
[email protected]

Senator Katie Dorset (D-28)
(919) 715-3042
[email protected]

Senator Don East (R-30)
(919) 733-5743
[email protected]

Senator Eddie Goodall (R-35)
(919) 733-7659
[email protected]

Senator Jim Jacumin (R-44)
(919) 715-7823
[email protected]

Senator John H. Kerr III (D-5)
(919) 733-5621
[email protected]

Senator Joe Sam Queen (D-47)
(919) 733-3460
[email protected]

Senator John Snow (D-50)
(919) 733-5875
[email protected]

Senator A. B. Swindell (D-11)
(919) 715-3030
[email protected]

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[Beagle-zebub]

You have to get a permit from a sheriff just to buy a handgun in NC?!
Without even going into the Equal Protection issue, it's hard for me to believe that such a restriction is in place in North Carolina.

 

[Fumbler]

Yeah, you need a permit.
Every transaction with a handgun requires a permit, even face to face private transfers.
Heck, you can't take possession of a handgun that is given to you in a will unless you have a permit. Who do you give the permit to if the person who willed it to you is dead?

Some counties are even more screwed up.
In Durham County to get a purchasing permit you have to have a notorized statement of character and you can only get two permits at a time.
You also have to register handguns.
They expect you to walk into the courthouse and give them the make, model, caliber, and serial numbers.
How in the world can they even verify that you own the pistol?
Beats me.

 

[Debunk Brady]

And to think, I was considering moving to NC. Not anymore.

 

[gcerbone]

IF you have a NC CHL, you don't need a purchase permit.

 

[Bruce333]

The purchase permit is a left over from Jim Crow laws. Designed to keep "undesireables" from buying guns. It really needs to be done away with all together as the NICS check does the same thing.

In Durham County to get a purchasing permit you have to have a notorized statement of character and you can only get two permits at a time.

Neither of which is part of the permit law, but they get away with it anyway.

The purchase permit is only for handguns, and as noted above, if you have a NC CHP you don't need it. The NC CHP also satisfies the NICS requirement for all firearm sales (handguns and long guns), fill out the 4473, show your ID and permit, pay and walk out the door with your new firearm.

 

[Ranger 40]

Sad to say but Gun Control was started in the South East. The very first Handgun laws started in Dixie not in the present Left Wing NE. The most Rabid Anti-Gunners have been from the S Eastern states.
Cater, Clinton, LBJ, Ramsey Clark Gore,, Estes Kefaufer{SP?} of Tenn. was head of the first gun control of the 1950s. The mean Gun Laws of 1968 were rammed Thru by the man from Texas LBJ. We have had some bad boys in the North East and still do. They however have not got the laws passed like the South Eastern bunch. These men were elected over and over in their home states,Ga.,ArK.,Texas, Tenn., Etc.

 

[rantingredneck]

Heck, you can't take possession of a handgun that is given to you in a will unless you have a permit. Who do you give the permit to if the person who willed it to you is dead?

The Executor of the estate.

 

[LAR-15]

I think your forgetting that the author of the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 was from NEW YORK and the author of the GCA of 1968 was from CONNECTICUT.