There still has not been any action taken on Senate Bill 928, the Castle Doctrine Bill, in the North Carolina House of Representatives. This bill was referred to three separate committees, the first being the House Judiciary I Committee. That committee is chaired by anti-gun State Representative Deborah Ross (D-38), and she appears to be unwilling to set a date for a hearing. Please continue to contact Representative Ross and urge her to allow this critical legislation—which received overwhelming, bi-partisan support in the Senate—to be heard. Representative Ross can be reached at 919-733-5773 or email [email protected]. Also, please contact your State Representative and ask them to urge House leadership to bring SB 928 up for consideration. Your Representative can be reached by phone at 919-733-7928. To identify your Representative, please click here.
House Bill 1132 was amended on Tuesday, making more improvements to the legislation, then carried over to Wednesday, when it was improved again. It hen passed Second and Third Reading by near unanimous votes. However, Third Reading was reconsidered on Thursday, due to some technical problems with the wording, and the bill was put back on the calendar. This bill now states that if a Right-to-Carry permit holder applies to his or her sheriff for renewal of a permit within 90 days of the permit's expiration, and the renewal application is not approved or denied by the expiration date, the permit will remain valid until the renewal decision is final. The bill also requires sheriffs to notify permittees when their permit is about to expire. Finally, should a permittee fail to apply to renew a permit before the expiration date, the permittee may apply within 60 days following the expiration of the permit, and ask the sheriff to waive the requirement of taking another firearm safety training course. The training requirement is currently mandatory for all new permits, even those recently expired. House Bill 1132 is now scheduled for Third Reading by the Senate on Wednesday, June 24. Please contact your State Senator and urge him or her to vote for House Bill 1132, once the technical issues are corrected, and oppose any efforts to water it down. To contact your State Senator, please click here.
Our thanks go out to the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association for working with legislators on these improvements and to State Senator Eddie Goodall (R-35) for offering an amendment that made many of these improvements.
House Bill 473, which would allow magistrates with a Right-to-Carry permit to carry concealed firearms into courthouses while on official business, has been having some difficulties in the Senate. On Wednesday, anti-gun State Senator Ed Jones (D-4) attempted to amend the bill to allow only the carrying of stun-guns by magistrates. The bill was pulled from the calendar and is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, June 23. Please call your State Senators and respectfully urge them to oppose Senator Jones' amendment and pass House Bill 473 without any changes. To contact your State Senators, please click here.