Grass Roots North Carolina
Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC 27605
June 20, 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.” Thanks to your efforts, leftist urban sheriffs can no longer obstruct handgun purchases, and churches which sponsor schools are better protected from violent sociopaths.
However, our work is far from done. Gun voters are deeply disappointed that you have sidelined House Bill 189, “Freedom to Carry NC.” Over the decades, Americans’ rights – including the right to carry firearms for self-protection – have been steadily eroded. It was certainly not the Framers’ intention that a governmental permission slip be required to carry firearms, concealed or otherwise. HB 189 is intended to restore the Framers’ ideals.
Although the legislative crossover deadline has passed, we both know that addition of an appropriation – for example, an allocation to the Criminal Justice Education & Training Standards Commission to develop the online training course stipulated in the proposed N.C.G.S. 14-415.35(e) – would render the bill eligible for consideration.
I strongly urge you to use the opportunity, created by a supermajority which gun voters helped you secure, to join the twenty-seven other states that have now adopted some form of permitless or “constitutional” concealed carry by passing HB 189.
As you will see in coming days, thousands of North Carolinians have already signed GRNC’s petition for passage of HB 189. I hope to be able to tell them about your support, particularly if you decide to run for higher office.
Armatissimi e liberissimi,*
F. Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International
Radio 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.