Grassroots North Carolina's Paul Valone tells Bearing Arms Cam & Co that the organization is mounting a major push to make the state the 30th in the nation to adopt a permitless carry bill. The first step is already underway, with Grassroots NC collecting thousands of signatures to a petition that will be presented to Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger later this month.
Valone says HB 189 easily passed the House last year and was headed for a vote on the Senate floor when Berger abruptly pulled the bill from consideration, telling reporters "We've done away with the pistol purchase permit, which was the number one goal for the gun rights groups for a long period of time. I just don't know that there's a need for us to delve into additional issues dealing with guns and people's Second Amendment rights."
"I guess it's not a Bill of Rights anymore but a Bill of Needs, and the person who's going to decide whether we need Constitutional Carry or not is Phil Berger, self-appointed arbiter of needs," Valone said, adding that the group isn't taking Berger's declaration lying down.
Instead, the group is hoping to put pressure on Berger and Senate leadership to take up HB 189 when lawmakers return to Raleigh for the second year of the two-year session. Valone acknowledges that Gov. Roy Cooper is sure to veto the bill if it gets to his desk, but with a GOP supermajority in both chambers of the legislature, the votes to override Cooper's veto should be there.
If the measure doesn't get a vote in the Senate this year, legislators will have to start the process all over again, and Valone says there's no guarantee that Republicans will maintain their veto-proof majority in November. This year's session would seem to be the ideal time to advance Constitutional Carry, but Valone says some lawmakers are afraid of making the change an issue during an election year.
https://bearingarms.com/cam...y-n1224457
