Grass Roots North Carolina / Forum For Firearms Education
Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC 27605
877.282.0939 (Phone) 919.573.0354 (Fax) www.GRNC.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: 704.907.9206
E-mail: president@GRNC.org
Release date: April 6, 2023
The Honorable Tim Moore, Speaker
16 West Jones Street, Room 2304
Raleigh, NC 27601
Dear Speaker Moore:
On behalf of Grass Roots North Carolina and its many supporters, please accept my thanks for the outstanding work done by you and House Republicans in passing Senate Bill 41, “Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections.” Congratulations on the historic override of anti-freedom Governor Roy Cooper’s veto, the first such override since 2019 and, in North Carolina, the first-ever override of a vetoed gun bill.
Indeed, the effort continues to bear fruit, most recently when Representative Tricia Cotham – one of the Democrats who chose not to vote on SB 41 – changed her party affiliation to Republican, giving Republicans truly veto-proof supermajorities in both the Senate and House.
I would be remiss if I failed to note the role played by gun voters in securing that supermajority. Had Second Amendment supporters not directed thousands of phone calls and emails to legislators, the critical three Democrats might have voted against SB 41, thereby eluding the chain of events which ultimately led to a Republican supermajority in the House.
Accordingly, I implore you to complete the task of strengthening the right of North Carolinians to keep and bear arms by passing House Bill 189, “NC Constitutional Carry Act.” With the May 4 crossover deadline looming, please give the bill an expeditious hearing.
With Florida recently becoming the 26th state to adopt some form of constitutional carry, and Nebraska likely to be the 27th, North Carolina is now part of a disadvantaged minority of states in which permission slips are required to exercise a basic civil right.
As the Latin proverb says, Mr. Speaker, fortune favors the bold. I hope you will leverage our success by passing HB 189.
Armatissimi e liberissimi,*
Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International
Host, Guns, Politics and Freedom
* First spoken by Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern power politics, with reference to the universally armed and therefore unconquerable Swiss, Armatissimi e liberissimi means “most armed, most free.” As an expression of the importance of the right to arms to freedom, it is GRNC’s credo.