For some time now, Speaker Thom Tillis has been assuring the gun owners of North Carolina that a concurrence vote on HB 937 will be held “next week.” Well, next week has already come and gone a couple of times, and the House has yet to hold the vote. What are they waiting for?
True,
the powerful North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) has applied
substantial political pressure on the House membership in order to
remove the pistol purchase permit repeal from HB 937. The NCSA fears the
loss of the old-fashioned pistol permit system, which provides Sheriffs
with all of the power and ever-increasing mounds of cash. However,
North Carolinians elected the House members to represent the citizenry,
not to represent the NCSA. The time is long overdue for Speaker Tillis
to shrug off the pressure being applied by the NCSA, and serve the
people who made his Speakership possible.
At
this stage, HB 937 cannot be amended. The House must give it an up or
down concurrence vote. If they vote not to concur, differences must be
resolved by a conference committee, where any weakening changes are
possible.
Speaker
Tillis can, and ought to, bring HB 937 to the floor for a concurrence
vote as soon as possible. Make no mistake: failure to bring forward HB
937 for a vote during this session is an anti-gun move. The Speaker and
the House members must do this, and they must do it now. Anything less
would be an affront to the law-abiding, gun-owning voters of North
Carolina.
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