It is now legal to purchase a pistol without a permit in North Carolina after the state’s Republican-led legislature overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
The state House voted to override Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 41 by 71-46 on Wednesday, a day after the state Senate voted 30-19 to do the same. Republicans hold a supermarjority in the state Senate but not in the House, but the absence of three Democrats allowed them to push through the override, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.
Softening permit requirements has been a long-standing goal of gun rights advocates, but this week’s move is taking place in the aftermath of yet another wrenching mass shooting in America, this one taking place at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people, including three 9-year-old children, were killed.
According to a legislative summary, a criminal and background check had previously been required before a purchase permit for a handgun transfer could be issued. Individuals “under indictment or convicted of a felony, fugitives, unlawful drug users, those adjudicated mentally incompetent or who have been committed to any mental institution, illegal or unlawful aliens and those who have renounced United States citizenship, those with dishonorable discharges from the Armed Forces, and those subject to domestic violence restraining orders” were prohibited from obtaining a permit under the old law.
The permit repeal goes into effect immediately. Federal background checks for handgun purchases from licensed dealers remain in effect.
The law also broadens the ability for concealed carry gun permit holders to “carry a handgun in a place of religious worship located on privately-owned educational property” under certain circumstances, including it being outside of posted school hours, the summary stated. Properties owned by a “local board of education or…
Read the full article here