News release
NC Moms Applaud Protection of Pistol Permit System, Removal of Worst Provisions from NC Gun Law
June 16, 2015
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
Vow to Continue Pressing for Common-Sense Gun Safety Laws
MomsRising today praised NC lawmakers, saying they listened to moms, not the NRA or Grassroots NC, when they removed the most dangerous provisions from the omnibus gun bill that passed the NC House this afternoon.
As originally proposed, the Second Amendment Affirmation Act (HB 562) would have included several provisions that the group says would have undermined public safety and put families at greater risk.
MomsRising members celebrated when legislators removed a provision that would have eliminated North Carolina’s pistol permitting system that requires background checks on guns sold through unlicensed sellers. The permitting system ensures that domestic violence abusers, dangerously mentally ill individuals, minors and convicted felons cannot buy handguns through an unlicensed dealer without a background check. When a similar law was repealed in Missouri, the handgun homicide rate increased by 25 percent in one year.
MomsRising also applauded successful removal of a provision that would have allowed convicted stalkers to get concealed carry permits five years after conviction. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention reports that more than one in five homicides in NC in 2011 were the result of domestic violence and more than half of the victims (55.6 percent) were killed with guns. From 2001 to 2010, 740 NC women were killed by firearms.
MomsRising.org members in North Carolina were part of the coalition effort to stop this legislation. They sent thousands of letters to North Carolina legislators, sharing their stories of how gun violence has impacted their families and communities, and visited and made calls to legislators’ offices.
“We are grateful to the courageous lawmakers who withstood the pressure of the gun lobby and acted to protect commonsense gun laws that make NC safer,” said Beth Messersmith, NC Campaign Director for MomsRising.org. “This has been a long and drawn out process, with the gun lobby trying to slip many dangerous provisions in under the wire. They thought no one was paying attention, but they were wrong. This fight has shown a spotlight on the way the gun lobby does business and their efforts to undermine public safety. As a result, North Carolinians are increasingly aware of and invested in the fight for common sense gun laws.”
“While we celebrate this victory in North Carolina, we recognize that the bill that passed today was still far from perfect. It still contains numerous provisions that move North Carolina in the wrong direction,” Messersmith added. “With more than 30 people killed by guns in our nation each day, we are more determined than ever to move forward common sense gun laws.”
“At MomsRising we've heard an outpouring of concern about the epidemic of gun violence in our nation and an outpouring of support for better gun safety laws. We heard from people across the political spectrum, including from NRA members, that we need common sense gun laws to reduce the terrible toll gun violence takes on our communities each and every day.”
“We are not giving up. MomsRising.org and its more than one million members, and people across this nation who care about the safety of their kids, their families and their communities, will continue to fight until we have common-sense gun safety laws in this country.
“We owe it our families. We owe it to our communities. We owe it to each other.”