GRNC President Paul Valone’s Response to WRAL

According to the article, Virginia requires only a relatively simple online application, meaning people can get permits there and then carry in North Carolina. As I noted in comments to Browder, which WRAL only partially published, the notion that we should “do something” about out-of-state concealed handgun permits with standards different than our own is a solution in search of a problem.

To our knowledge, neither WRAL nor anyone else has documented a single instance of an out-of-state permit-holder from Virginia or anywhere else causing a problem in North Carolina, much less a trend toward such problems.

Moreover, the trend nationwide is toward relaxing excessive burdens on concealed handgun applicants, not increasing them. Not only has nobody demonstrated a problem in states which do not require live-fire qualification, states such as Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Wyoming and Vermont now allow lawful citizens to carry concealed firearms without even obtaining a permit. We have yet to see documented problems from these states.

In fact, North Carolina’s problem is that vague, antiquated and arbitrary application requirements are allowing sheriffs to improperly deny applications for thousands of qualified applicants, who are then faced with the choice of remaining unprotected, or else applying for out-of-state permits from Virginia and elsewhere. To solve this problem, I call upon the North Carolina General Assembly to pass GRNC’s “Concealed Handgun Standardization Act,” either in House Bill 891 or (preferably) in Senate Bill 641.

Paul Valone

President, Grass Roots North Carolina