Is there any common ground on gun legislation between NC Republicans and Democrats?

After every mass shooting in the United States, there are renewed calls to look at laws about guns. And the call came again in Raleigh, where North Carolina’s capital city is reckoning with the aftermath of a mass shooting that took five lives.

Calls for legislative action frequently come from Democrats, who are more likely to support regulations on firearms than Republicans. But there is some common ground between the major political parties around gun safety. At the federal level, Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr supported a bill that would incentivize states to pass red flag laws, The N&O previously reported. Those allow courts to temporarily take guns away from people deemed a danger.

However, Durham Democratic Rep. Marcia Morey said during a news conference Tuesday with other Democratic lawmakers that 10 bills around gun reforms were filed and none of them received a hearing. She said she will again propose a red flag bill creating extreme risk protection orders in the 2023 legislative session. It might not get any traction, just as it hasn’t in previous sessions, but Morey said she is talking to some Republicans about changes to bill language to build support for it.

Rep. Robert Reives, a Chatham County Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday that North Carolinians want lawmakers to concentrate on solutions.

“And instead, it feels like every time we try to talk about solutions, they become political talk. To the point where I almost feel obligated to say this is not about taking anybody’s guns. Nobody up here wants to take anybody’s guns. This is not about good legal, responsible gun ownership. It’s just about seeing there’s a problem. Acknowledging that there’s a problem, and trying to get different viewpoints to help solve that problem,” he said.

Sen. Dan Blue, the Senate Democratic leader, lives in the Hedingham neighborhood where Raleigh’s mass shooting took place on Oct. 13. The five people killed were off-duty Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Jesus Torres, 29; James Thompson, 16; Nicole Connors, 52; Susan Karnatz, 49; and Mary Marshall, 34.

Sources have told The News & Observer that the suspect in the shootings is 15-year-old Austin Thompson, brother of James Thompson. The type of gun used is still unknown.

Republicans have majorities in both the House and Senate. Early voting starts Thursday in the midterm elections, and the results could give Republicans the supermajority needed to override the governor’s vetoes. So far, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed bills that would loosen gun regulations.

But some bills have not made it to his desk even with bipartisan support, like House Bill 427.

Safe gun storage bill stalled

Republican Sen. Bobby Hanig, who previously served in the House, was the lead sponsor of that bill to encourage gun safety. Hanig was recently appointed to finish out a term in a Senate district where he’s currently running for election, a 10-county stretch from Warren to Currituck.

Hanig told The N&O on Tuesday that he “absolutely will” introduce the bill again, this time in the Senate.

“I absolutely tried my hardest, but the Senate would not hear any gun bills even though this one was 100% good for everybody,” Hanig said.

HB 427, called Firearm Safe Storage Awareness Initiative, passed the House nearly unanimously, 116-1, in May 2021. But in the Senate, it was referred to the Rules Committee, where bills often go to languish. The bill would have funded a N.C. Department of Health and Human Services two-year awareness campaign about safe gun storage and help distribute gun locks. The total cost proposed would be $155,700.

One of the Democrats who signed onto the bill as a co-sponsor is Rep. Allison Dahle of Wake County. A gun owner, Dahle told Hanig she supported the idea because it could help make a safer storage system for gun owners.

“Because my weapons are stored safely. And his weapons are stored safely. And a lot of people, and a lot of companies out there, are willing to provide you with safety locks and that kind of thing,” Dahle said in an interview with The N&O on Tuesday on the House floor after a brief session in downtown Raleigh.

Dahle said she has told conservatives “over and over, I don’t want your guns — because I have guns. All I want you to do is make sure the ones you have are locked up safe. And make sure that the people in the home, know how to use them and know what they do. Because I think depending on your age, depending on who you are, I don’t think you always grasp what a gun actually does. And maybe you do. But I always hope for the best.”

Dahle said she and her wife got involved in shooting sporting clays and target practice about 20 years ago, and keep their firearms in a safe. Dahle said her grandfather went hunting and had a gun when she was a child, but that the gun was never just lying around.

Sen. Jim Perry, a Kinston Republican, told The N&O in a phone interview Tuesday that he wouldn’t support Hanig’s bill exactly as presented. Perry chairs the health committee, and said he would support the bill if it relied on an agency that already deals with firearms, like the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, instead of DHHS.

Perry also said he thinks that if someone can afford to buy a gun, they could probably afford to buy a lock for it. However, Perry said he would be open to tax incentives for gun storage.

Red flag law?

Dahle said that red flag laws are a possible legislative response to the Raleigh mass shooting.

“I don’t know anything about the case, I don’t know anything about the people,” Dahle said. “I just know that it’s just so hard. It’s so sad and so hard. And you know, thoughts and prayers suck when you’ve lost somebody you love. That’s all there is to it.

“There’s nothing you can say when you’ve lost somebody you love to gun violence, suicide, any of these things, even when you lose somebody to a heart attack, it sucks. And it’s just, it’s heartbreaking that somebody caused this and we have no, we don’t know — we don’t have any reason why.”

“And we may never find out. And that’s why the red flag law is so important. Because if there was instability in the home, or instability with that person, and those guns could have been removed. And again, we don’t want to take them away forever. They are taken away to keep people safe,” she said.

On red flag laws, Perry said he is “not going to support something that takes away someone’s rights. I’m just not going to do it.” He said that he hasn’t seen legislation that would protect the rights of individuals and that the “devil is in the details.”

Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, has made similar comments about waiting for the details when asked about red flag laws.

Perry said that “anytime you have a bureaucrat who has the ability to take someone’s rights, I get worried. I don’t support things like that because I’ve always seen it misused throughout history.”

Perry said that the response to mass shootings gets politicized and pointed out increases in homicides and violent crime. He said that the laws already on the books need to be enforced.

House Speaker Tim Moore told The N&O in a statement Tuesday that “politicizing this tragedy is wrong.”

“We need to allow law enforcement to complete their investigation before jumping to any conclusions about policy changes. As they continue their investigation, we should remain focused on praying for the victims’ families and supporting law enforcement rather than seizing the moment for a political debate,” Moore said.

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