SB 50: ‘Freedom to Carry NC’


SB 50: ‘Freedom to Carry NC’


North Carolina is poised to become the 30th state to adopt permitless or “constitutional” carry of concealed firearms. Typical of gun control proponents, Representative Deb Butler (D-New Hanover, GRNC 0-star) cites dubious statistics from un-named sources to buttress her claim that permitless carry, as contained in Senate Bill 50 (“Freedom to Carry NC”), would somehow increase violent crime. Also typical, she exploits a recent shooting in Catawba County which had no bearing on the issue at hand. In truth:


  • A 2022 research paper by K. Alexander Adams of the University of Wyoming School of Law Firearms Research Center and Youngsung Kim of the Colorado State University Department of Political Science did an analysis of whether crime increased or decreased in states which adopted permitless carry laws in a broad-ranged study comprising the years 1980 to 2018, finding that adoption of permitless carry has no impact on murder rates. The study concluded, “We find no evidence that looser concealed carry laws pose a significant public health or criminological risk.”1


  • Adams and David Kopel, also of the Firearms Research Center, later found that although the drop in murder rate was not statistically significant, “The relationship between constitutional-carry laws and homicide is negative, which is the opposite of what gun-control activists have predicted. Constitutional-carry laws were associated with about 6% lower homicide rates…”2


  • A 2022 study by the Crime Prevention Research Center found a statistically significant drop in murder rates for states which adopted permitless carry, but no significant effect on firearm homicide rates or other categories of violent crime.3


  • After Ohio became the 23rd permitless carry state, the Ohio Center for Justice Research concluded, “In the year following, crime involving guns dropped across Ohio’s eight largest cities as a whole and in six of the eight individually”, further noting: “The rate of gun crime in Parma fell the most – by 22% – followed by Akron and Toledo, each with decreases of 18%…”4


  • Although Rep. Butler cites West Virginia as experiencing increased crime after adopting permitless carry, West Virginia’s News said: “So far, FBI statistics, as well as anecdotal experiences of some veteran law enforcement leaders, haven’t seen West Virginia’s move to constitutional carry shift the needle on crime much, if at all.”5


  • An informal study entitled, “Concealed Carry Crime Stats 2025: The Impact of Open Carry on Crime in the U.S.” found that of 20 states which adopted permitless carry, 12 (60%) experienced declines in overall rates of violent crime.6


Rather than throwing around phony “statistics” manufactured to produce a preordained outcome, Grass Roots North Carolina advocates implementation of public policy based on sound research – research which, in this case, finds that permitless carry laws have been associated with either no change or a reduction in violent crime. As such, GRNC continues to advocate laws increasing legal concealed carry which have for years have coincided with a reduction of violent crime in North Carolina. GRNC strongly recommends you support SB 50.


References:


  1. “The Impact of Liberalized Concealed Carry Laws on Homicide: An Assessment,” 2/28/23, K. Alexander Adams, University of Wyoming – Firearms Research Center, Youngsung Kim, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4368641

  2. “The Statistical Truth About the Impact of Constitutional Carry,” 5/23/22, Dave Kopel, Alexander Adams, America’s First Freedom, https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/the-statistical-truth-about-the-impact-of-constitutional-carry/

  3. “Changes in Crime and Killings of Police After Constitutional Carry Adopted,” Dr. John R Lott, Jr., Crime Prevention Research Center, January 23, 2022, https://crimeresearch.org/2022/01/changes-in-crime-and-killings-of-police-after-constitutional-carry-adopted/

  4. “Change in Concealed Carry Law Did Not Drive Violent Crime in Ohio Cities, Study Shows,” 1/3/24, Dave Yost, Ohio Attorney General, https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-Releases/January-2024/Change-in-Concealed-Carry-Law-Did-Not-Drive-Violen

  5. “West Virginia’s constitutional carry law doesn’t appear to have moved needle much, if at all, on violent crime,” West Virginia’s News, 9/19/21, Dave Harvey, https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/west-virginias-constitutional-carry-law-doesnt-appear-to-have-moved-needle-much-if-at-all/article_6816217c-17f2-11ec-acc4-bb69fe212cc5.html

  6. “Concealed Carry Crime Stats 2025: The Impact of Open Carry on Crime in the U.S., ammo.com, https://ammo.com/articles/concealed-carry-crime-stats