CBC Editorial: Tuesday, March 21, 2023; editorial #8833
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company
Who are we to believe?
North Carolina Republican legislators, who have a legacy of
enacting laws that courts have declared
racially biased and now say they’re looking to rid the state of a vestige of the racist Jim Crow era by repealing the state’s statutes requiring county sheriffs to issue pistol permits after background checks from applicants.
Or …
Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – North Carolinians who know and
lived Jim Crow first-hand – or the
Duke University Center for Firearms Law, who say “statements that North Carolina’s permit law was purely racist or solely intended to disarm Black citizens don’t hold up to close historical scrutiny and often do a disservice to the quality of debate and discussion surrounding modern legislative proposals like the current push to repeal the law.”
While other parts of
Senate Bill 41 have laudable objectives – such as a campaign to distribute gun safety locks and stress the importance of safe and secure storage of firearms – the case can’t be made for the main objectives of the bill.
Current
state statutes don’t prevent law-abiding citizens from owning handguns. They do, however, rightly help make sure guns aren’t in the hands of those who are (among other reasons): convicted felons; under indictment for felonies, fugitives from justice, adjudicated as mentally incompetent; illegal aliens; dishonorably discharged from the armed services; renounced their American citizenship.
The bill also expands the ways guns can legally be taken into public school facilities when being used by religious organizations. Amid
skyrocketing instances of threats and guns being found in and around schools, is this the appropriate direction to move to make students, teachers and parents feel safer?
Stretching the truth about a law’s background doesn’t lend much to the credibility of those advocating change.
Legislation to appease big campaign donors shouldn’t come at the cost of North Carolinians’ safety. It is no affront to true gun rights to make sure firearms don’t end up in the hands of those who are adjudicated as a danger to their communities or themselves.
The circumstances are different now with a veto-proof majority in the state Senate and what appears to be a veto-proof vote for the bill in the House.
Still, Cooper should veto this one too. Legislators should uphold it and demand a more responsible bill in its place.
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