North Carolina: NRA-Backed Omnibus Gun Bill No Longer in Danger, Anti-Due Process Bill Should Die in Committee Before Crossover

Please contact your state Representative and urge him or her to SUPPORT HB 562 

Thanks to your efforts, House Bill 562, the NRA-backed omnibus gun bill, is no longer in danger of failing to make the crossover deadline.  House Republican Leadership has worked with NRA to amend HB 562 to ensure it is no longer subject to this deadline.  The bill has now been referred to the House Committee on Appropriations, where it may be taken up next week.

As previously reported, HB 562 is a comprehensive reform bill that would make a number of important pro-gun modifications.  Although it was unfortunately amended in committee to remove certain pro-gun measures, HB 562 still has our support and is in critical need of yours as well. If passed, HB 562 would do the following:

• Requires chief law enforcement officer (CLEO) of a jurisdiction to certify the transfer or making of a firearm in a timely manner. (This measure had been removed in a previous version, but has been returned.)
  
  
• Clarify the exemption for keeping a firearm in a vehicle by a person with a valid Concealed Handgun Permit while the vehicle is on the property of a public school.

• Repeal the requirement that law-abiding citizens must obtain a permit from their local sheriff before acquiring a handgun.  (This measure had been removed in a previous version, but has been returned.)

• Improve the existing Range Protection Law, which would help to protect shooting ranges from new local ordinances designed to shut them down.

• Improve the issuing process and remove unnecessary disqualifiers for Concealed Handgun Permits.

• Remove the prohibition on using a lawfully possessed short barreled rifle for hunting.

• Prohibit doctors from asking questions about firearm ownership on any written questionnaire.

• Strengthen North Carolina’s preemption statute.

Please thank those members of the House Republican Leadership you contacted for working with NRA to ensure this important legislation continues to be viable this session.

In addition, please contact your state Representative, especially if he or she is a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, and urge her or him to support HB 562, and to work with NRA to ensure passage of the strongest pro-gun package possible.

In other good news, anti-gun House Bill 801 has been pulled from Judiciary I and referred to Rules, where it should die for failing to make crossover.  If it had passed, HB 801 would have violated due process by going far beyond what is laid out in federal law, allowing nearly anyone to file an ex parte Civil No-Contact Order against anyone else, triggering the surrender of firearms for the duration of the order, and prohibiting them from even touching any firearms or ammunition with a very low threshold of evidence.

Thank you to everyone who contacted their legislators in opposition to HB 801.