NC lawmaker confident GOP will be able to pass gun bills previously vetoed by Cooper

When Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a pair of GOP bills in 2021 that sought to loosen existing state gun laws, Republicans didn’t try to override his decision.

Now, bolstered with larger majorities in the General Assembly than they had a year-and-a-half ago, a top GOP lawmaker who resurrected the bills this week says he believes Republicans will have enough votes to pass both pieces of legislation, even over another likely veto from the governor.

The two bills introduced by GOP Sens. Danny Britt, Warren Daniel and Jim Perry, Senate Bills 40 and 41, are similar to previous versions that earned the support of a handful of Democrats during the 2021-2022 legislative session when Republicans passed them through the state Senate and House.

SB 40, named “Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal,” would remove from state law a requirement that anyone buying a handgun in North Carolina first obtain a permit from their local sheriff’s office. The other bill, SB 41, “Protect Religious Meeting Places,” would change current laws that prohibit anyone from carrying a firearm onto school grounds to allow people with a concealed carry permit to carry guns on school property after hours, if the building is being used for religious services.

Britt, a chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday he hadn’t yet talked to the entire Senate Republican caucus about the bills, but said he believed it was extremely important to move forward with both pieces of legislation.

“These are again, issues that have gone through committee; they’ve been debated, they’ve been vetted,” Britt told The News & Observer. “You know, we had the support of the sheriff’s association on both bills last time. Law enforcement sees the need for us to do this. They support what we’re doing here, and I think that it’s something that we need to get over the finish line.”

GOP senator confident bills will get Democratic support

When Republicans passed the pistol permit repeal bill in 2021, two Democrats voted with them in the House. The vote in the Senate was strictly along party lines, with one Democrat not voting and one Democrat having an excused absence.

The bill that would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns onto school properties being used for religious purposes, during after-school hours, won the support of five Democrats in the House and three in the Senate.

Britt pointed to the past support from multiple Democrats when he said he was confident the newly introduced bills could pass this time by large enough margins in both chambers to survive a likely veto from Cooper.

Making passage of the bills an easier task for Republicans is the fact that the GOP won enough seats in last year’s elections to form a veto-proof supermajority on their own in the Senate, and came much closer to a supermajority in the House, where they’re currently one seat shy.

GOP Speaker Tim Moore, the top Republican in the House, has repeatedly said there are multiple House Democrats who have indicated they would be willing to vote with Republicans on potential overrides of certain bills.

So far, both bills have been referred to the Senate Rules Committee, the final committee before a bill can be considered on the Senate floor, but additional committee meetings are possible. Britt said he believed the bills will likely be heard relatively soon.

One factor that could change the timing of when Republicans hold votes on the bill is the state budget, which is a priority for lawmakers this session.

“There are certain folks that we’re trying to make sure we get votes on the budget, and if we need a Democrat in the House, for example, to vote on one of these bills but they also need them on the budget, then it’s possible the House may want to wait on that veto override until after the budget is done,” Britt said.

Gun safety advocate calls bills ‘dangerous’

Legislation related to guns usually falls along party lines in North Carolina, and with a few exceptions, most spoke out in opposition to both bills the last time they were being debated.

Proponents of the bill making it legal for people to carry guns onto school grounds during religious services argued the measure would keep congregants safe from gun violence. Opponents of the bill argued the opposite, that introducing guns into religious spaces or onto school properties was not a safe or sensible idea.

Republicans said they wanted to revoke the permit requirement to buy a handgun because of the law’s roots as a Jim Crow-era policy that was implemented to keep Black people from obtaining a gun, The N&O previously reported. Democrats including N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, said at the time that removing the permit process would make it tougher for law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of “domestic abusers, felons and other dangerous people.”

“If you just think about why the permit was instituted to begin with, you ought to be opposed to keeping it in place, in my view,” Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters Tuesday.

Berger expressed his support for both bills. He said he believed the bill allowing guns on school grounds during religious services was “well-intentioned” and would allow congregants to “take precautions to protect themselves that they deem to be appropriate.”

In a statement, Cooper’s office indicated that the governor remains opposed to the bills.

“At a time when gun fire has surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of injury death for children, the legislature should focus on combating gun violence instead of making it easier for guns to end up at a school or in the hands of criminals, children or those who are a danger to themselves or others,” spokesperson Sam Chan said.

Becky Ceartas, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said she had similar concerns that Republicans had reintroduced bills that would “eliminate existing gun laws that are saving lives.”

“Gun violence is a public health crisis nationally and in North Carolina,” Ceartas said in an email. “The last thing we need to do is to weaken our existing gun laws.”

Ceartas said a drop in gun-related murders seen in the 10 years after Connecticut passed its own law in 1995 requiring a permit to purchase a handgun, along with an increase in firearm deaths seen in the years after Missouri repealed its permit law in 2007, showed that the permit requirement was an effective tool at preventing gun deaths.

She also said the proposal to allow concealed carry permit holders to bring their guns onto school properties during religious services was a “dangerous” idea.

“The fact is that guns get left behind in restrooms, classrooms and gymnasiums,” Ceartas said. “We need to protect NC children and teachers including those at schools on church grounds.”

Insider editor Lars Dolder contributed to this report.

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