NC: DEMAND CONCURRENCE ON HB 937

 

In recent days, the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) has flip flopped on its support for HB 937, a common sense bill that would modernize North Carolina’s gun laws, and allow law-abiding citizens to better defend themselves and their families from predators who do not pay attention to gun laws. The reason for the NCSA’s reversal on this bill clearly revolves around the money the sheriffs collect, and the power they maintain, through our State’s outdated pistol permit system.

Aside from the fees the sheriffs are currently charging in the current system, each county’s sheriff has unlimited power to decide who may or may not purchase a handgun. That means your county’s sheriff can arbitrarily deny anyone their Second Amendment rights, absent any due process. For these reasons: money and power, the NCSA does not want this shameful, Jim Crow-era leftover to be eliminated. But HB 937 would do just that. It would eliminate it, and replace it with the fair and reliable National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This is a dependable, computerized system that has been tried and tested, and in thirty-six states it is the sole background check system, eliminating old-fashioned pistol permits.   

The NCSA has had a lot to say about what it would mean to eliminate the current system, a system in which they hold all the power. Let’s examine their statements, and contrast them with the facts:

The NCSA Says: NICS obtains criminal records from North Carolina only regarding persons who are fingerprinted, which includes felons and some limited categories of misdemeanants. Many misdemeanants, punishable for up to two years in prison, are not fingerprinted and, therefore, are not reported to NICS.
The Fact Is: People convicted of state-level misdemeanors punishable by less than two years are not prohibited from owning firearms under federal law, meaning sheriffs want discretion to deny permits to people who are not prohibited.

The NCSA Says: North Carolina state law only requires the Clerks of Superior Court to report to NICS a limited category of those persons involved in an involuntary mental health commitment. 

The Fact Is: According to the FBI, the NICS database encompasses: A person adjudicated mental defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution or incompetent to handle own affairs, including dispositions to criminal charges of found not guilty by reason of insanity or found incompetent to stand trial. 

The NCSA Says: Persons from North Carolina who are prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm, but who are likely to not be discovered by a NICS check, are persons who: Are under indictment or information in any court for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year; Have been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year; are fugitives from justice; are unlawful users of or addicted to any controlled substance; have been adjudicated as mentally defective or have been committed to any mental institution; Who are subject to a court order restraining them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of the intimate partner; or Who have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. 

The Fact Is: The FBI says otherwise. Their description of the contents of NICS cover all of the situations that the NCSA mentions above.

The NCSA Says: The pistol purchase permitting process in North Carolina is currently far superior to the NICS check and provides increased public safety for our citizens. 

 
The Fact Is: For rifles and shotguns, the NICS is already used in North Carolina, and without objection from the NCSA. If NCSA considers NICS to be an inadequate means of background check, why has it not objected to its use as the sole background check system for long guns?

The NCSA Says: Sheriffs’ “local knowledge” gives them familiarity with local residents that goes above and beyond what the NICS can provide. 

The Fact Is:  NCSA's "local knowledge" argument is a stretch. Although sheriffs claim that familiarity with local residents gives them knowledge above and beyond that provided by NICS, the argument is rife with flaws. Just one example would be the fact that Mecklenburg County has processed 12,000 permits thus far for 2013. Is it the position of the NCSA that sheriffs in large counties routinely check tens of thousands of households? Unlikely.

The NCSA needs to get its facts straight, and the antiquated pistol permit system needs to be replaced with a proper, twenty-first century alternative.  It’s also a fact that the NCSA’s misguided opposition to this one provision in HB 937, threatens to derail the entire bill. That’s a real problem.

Action, please.