NRA & Sheriffs Sell Out Gun Buyers |
NRA lobbyist Anthony Roulette and Sheriffs’ Association Director Eddie Caldwell throw gun owners under the bus…
The Problem
With passage of HB 562 last year, which included removal of several burdensome pistol purchase permit (PPP) application requirements, legislators attempted to standardize what were then widely variable permit formats. The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) managed to slip into the bill a requirement that mental health forms be sent to Clerks of Superior Court to certify the applicant has no history of mental incompetence (involuntary commitment, insanity defense, etc). The ostensible reason for the form is that older records are not digitized, but rather stored on microfiche.
Although sheriffs are now required to issue purchase permits in 14 days, urban counties are flouting the law, claiming that due to the large influx of gun permit applications after the San Bernardino attack, clerks of court are unable to keep up with manually researching involuntary commitment records. Sheriffs are refusing to issue permits until the form comes back from the clerk of court, claiming a “better safe than sorry” policy in exceeding the 14 day limit. In Mecklenburg County and elsewhere, applicants are being stalled for 60 to 90 days.
Collusion?
Enter NRA lobbyist Anthony Roulette and a clandestine meeting to “solve” the problem. Among those at the meeting were Roulette, Representative Allen McNeill (a former Deputy Sheriff with strong ties to NC Sheriffs’ Association or NCSA), NCSA Executive Director Eddie Caldwell, representatives of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), and Dennis Allen, who represented the NC Rifle & Pistol Association (NCRPA), the state NRA affiliate.
Conspicuously absent from the meeting were any representatives from Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC). And why were we absent, you ask? Perhaps it was because Caldwell, whose long history of featherbedding his $330,000 salary and turning sheriffs against gun owners has drawn fire from GRNC, reportedly quipped that if GRNC attended, he would not. Or perhaps it was at the behest of Roulette who, when asked by AOC personnel why GRNC was not present, reportedly responded that we were “unavailable.”
Most likely, Roulette and Caldwell colluded to exclude GRNC just as they have colluded to undermine gun owners in the past. However you choose to interpret it, the state’s largest and most effective gun rights organization was deliberately excluded.
Sellout
As the apparent result of this cozy little tête-à-tête, Rep. McNeill slipped $250,000 into the massive House budget bill to allow the AOC to begin digitizing involuntary commitment records. So now, everybody is happy: Roulette gets to say he did something, Caldwell’s sheriffs get more access to ancient mental health records (to deny permits to more people, of course), and AOC gets $250,000.
Everybody gets something…except you. You see, urban clerks of court aren’t delaying purchase permit applications solely due to lack of resources; some anti-gun bureaucrats are using the new form as an excuse to vex gun owners. Throwing money at them will accomplish nothing. It is highly probable that application delays will continue and, as you know, a right delayed is a right denied.
Solution
For the past few weeks, GRNC has been working behind the scenes, pushing a plan to have records digitized by a certain date and then, once complete, to have the release form being sent to clerks of court simply disappear. Unfortunately, the Senate seems unlikely to add the measure, meaning we will take the fight to a “conference committee,” comprised of representatives from both the NC House and Senate, where differences between House and Senate versions of the budget will be resolved.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED! |
- EMAIL ALL NC HOUSE AND SENATE REPUBLICANS: Deliver the message below, and don’t be dissuaded when you hear politicians claim, “This is a budget bill, not a policy bill.” Tell them that is nonsense, and that EVERY bill is a policy bill. Otherwise, Republicans would be allocating money to Planned Parenthood to do taxpayer-funded abortions.
- CALL & EMAIL YOUR NC HOUSE REP AND SENATOR: Let them know you don’t appreciate being sold out by the NRA and NCSA, and that you are counting on them to make a simple correction by “sunsetting” the troublesome release form once it is no longer needed. You can find your representative at: goo.gl/txBTh8
- MONITOR FUTURE GRNC ALERTS: Once we know who the conferees will be, we will launch additional alerts targeting the conference committee.
- HELP GRNC DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS: Unlike the NRA, the NCSA and even the NCR&P, GRNC does not compromise on principle! Please help by going to: http://www.grnc.org/join-grnc/contribute
Contact Information:
Allen.McNeill@ncleg.net, Bert.Jones@ncleg.net, Bob.Steinburg@ncleg.net, Gary.Pendleton@ncleg.net, Carl.Ford@ncleg.net, Charles.Jeter@ncleg.net, Chris.Malone@ncleg.net, Chris.Millis@ncleg.net, Chris.Whitmire@ncleg.net, Chuck.McGrady@ncleg.net, Craig.Horn@ncleg.net, Dan.Bishop@ncleg.net, Dana.Bumgardner@ncleg.net, David.Lewis@ncleg.net, Dean.Arp@ncleg.net, Debra.Conrad@ncleg.net, Dennis.Riddell@ncleg.net, Donny.Lambeth@ncleg.net, Frank.Iler@ncleg.net, George.Cleveland@ncleg.net, George.Robinson@ncleg.net, Gregory.Murphy@ncleg.net, Harry.Warren@ncleg.net, Hugh.Blackwell@ncleg.net, James.Langdon@ncleg.net, Jamie.Boles@ncleg.net, Jason.Saine@ncleg.net, Jay.Adams@ncleg.net, Jeff.Collins@ncleg.net, Jeffrey.Elmore@ncleg.net, Jimmy.Dixon@ncleg.net, John.Fraley@ncleg.net, John.Torbett@ncleg.net, John.Faircloth@ncleg.net, John.Blust@ncleg.net, John.Bell@ncleg.net, John.Bradford@ncleg.net, John.Szoka@ncleg.net, Jon.Hardister@ncleg.net, Jonathan.Jordan@ncleg.net, Josh.Dobson@ncleg.net, Julia.Howard@ncleg.net, Justin.Burr@ncleg.net, Kelly.Hastings@ncleg.net, Kyle.Hall@ncleg.net, Larry.Pittman@ncleg.net, Larry.Yarborough@ncleg.net, Lee.Zachary@ncleg.net, Linda.Johnson2@ncleg.net, Marilyn.Avila@ncleg.net, Mark.Brody@ncleg.net, Michael.Speciale@ncleg.net, Michele.Presnell@ncleg.net, Mike.Hager@ncleg.net, Mitchell.Setzer@ncleg.net, Leo.Daughtry@ncleg.net, Nelson.Dollar@ncleg.net, Pat.Hurley@ncleg.net, Pat.McElraft@ncleg.net, Paul.Stam@ncleg.net, Phil.Shepard@ncleg.net, Rayne.Brown@ncleg.net, Rena.Turner@ncleg.net, Rick.Catlin@ncleg.net, Rob.Bryan@ncleg.net, Roger.West@ncleg.net, Sam.Watford@ncleg.net, Sarah.Stevens@ncleg.net, Scott.Stone@ncleg.net, Stephen.Ross@ncleg.net, Susan.Martin@ncleg.net, Ted.Davis@ncleg.net, Tim.Moore@ncleg.net, Bill.Brawley@ncleg.net, Andrew.Brock@ncleg.net, Andy.Wells@ncleg.net, Bill.Cook@ncleg.net, Bill.Rabon@ncleg.net, Bob.Rucho@ncleg.net, Chad.Barefoot@ncleg.net, David.Curtis@ncleg.net, Deanna.Ballard@ncleg.net, Buck.Newton@ncleg.net, Fletcher.Hartsell@ncleg.net, Harry.Brown@ncleg.net, Jeff.Jackson@ncleg.net, Jeff.Tarte@ncleg.net, Jerry.Tillman@ncleg.net, Jim.Davis@ncleg.net, John.Alexander@ncleg.net, Joyce.Krawiec@ncleg.net, Kathy.Harrington@ncleg.net, Louis.Pate@ncleg.net, Michael.Lee@ncleg.net, Norman.Sanderson@ncleg.net, Phil.Berger@ncleg.net, Ralph.Hise@ncleg.net, Rick.Gunn@ncleg.net, Ron.Rabin@ncleg.net, Shirley.Randleman@ncleg.net, Stan.Bingham@ncleg.net, Tamara.Barringer@ncleg.net, Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net, Tom.McInnis@ncleg.net, Tommy.Tucker@ncleg.net, Trudy.Wade@ncleg.net, Warren.Daniel@ncleg.net, Wesley.Meredith@ncleg.net, Paul.Tine@ncleg.net
DELIVER THIS MESSAGE
Dear Legislator:
Right now, sheriffs around the state are obstructing handgun purchases by lawful citizens by significantly delaying issuance of pistol purchase permits. Although by law permits must be issued or denied within 14 days, in Mecklenburg County and elsewhere gun buyers are being delayed by up to 3 months.
At issue is a new release form slipped into HB 562 last year by the NC Sheriffs’ Association which requires clerks of court to research ancient involuntary commitments still stored on microfiche. Anti-gun bureaucrats, claiming insufficient resources, are failing to return the form to sheriffs who, saying “it’s better to be safe than sorry,” are deliberately breaking the law by delaying permit issuance beyond 14 days.
Thanks to an apparent sellout by NRA lobbyist Anthony Roulette and NCSA Executive Director Eddie Caldwell, HB 1030 contains a measure giving the Administrative Office of the Courts $250,000 to digitize the records, but does nothing to eliminate the source of the problems, namely the release form.
Once the involuntary commitment records are digitized, the release form will be redundant and should “sunset” concurrent with completing the project. Moreover, the digitizing of records should have a fixed deadline. Although some will undoubtedly argue, “This is a budget bill, not a policy bill”, in truth EVERY bill passed is a policy bill. If they weren’t, Republicans would be allocating money for taxpayer-funded abortions at Planned Parenthood.
I strongly urge you to ensure the final version of HB 1030 contains not only funds for digitizing records, but also a “sunset” for the medical release form stipulated by § 14-404 (e1)(5) which is currently being exploited by some clerks of court to delay gun purchases. I will be monitoring this issue through Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.
Respectfully,
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! |
As you know, GRNC is an all volunteer force. As such, we are looking for volunteers in a couple of areas:
- WEB DEVELOPMENT
Experience in web development to include HTML, CSS & Java Scripting. If interested, contact GRNC President using the following contact form: http://www.grnc.org/contact
- ALERT WRITING
Solid writing skills, ability to translate legal, political, technical and firearms jargon into layman's terms and make the public care about the issue. Ability to manipulate HTML style emails on the code level is a nice to have. If interested, please contact GRNC using this e-mail address: alert@grnc.org
If you have these skills, you can help the Second Amendment fight by enhancing and expanding GRNC’s presence, ensuring our message is received broadly in these modern times.
Don’t let your talents go to waste, as you could be the difference between gun-rights advancements and gun-rights losses.
Be the person who says, “I did something!” Instead of the person who says, “I should have done something.”
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