John --

It’s past time. Way past time. After yet another weekend of awful – and preventable – shootings in El Paso, Dayton, Chicago, and here in NC, it’s high time for our Raleigh lawmakers to pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation. We join the voices from Dayton in telling our lawmakers: Do something! Now is the time to call your legislator.

Specifically, two bills stuck in a House committee need to be sent to the House floor and debated there. This can be done if 61 representatives sign a special document called a discharge petition to bring them out of the committee and to the floor.

These are the 2 bills to call about:

House Bill 454, Allow ERPOs to Save Lives & Prevent Suicides. (ERPO stands for Extreme Risk Protection Order.) HB 454 allows a family/household member or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily take firearms away from someone who is an imminent danger to themselves or others. Within 10 days, a hearing is held to determine whether the person poses a danger of physical harm to themselves or others. If not an imminent danger, the weapons are returned. If so, the weapons are held for up to a year.

House Bill 86, Gun Violence Prevention Act. HB 86 would: 

• Expand NC’s purchase permit system to include assault weapons and long guns (right now, a permit is only required to purchase a handgun);
• Require a 72-hour waiting period before a purchased firearm may be delivered to the owner;
• Prohibit assault weapon sales to people under age 21, and long gun sales to people under age 18;
• Prohibit sale/possession of a bump stock or trigger crank;
• Require gun owners to store firearms in a locked container;
• Revise NC’s concealed handgun permit reciprocity law, creating a list of states whose permits are also valid in NC;
• Require reporting of a lost/stolen firearm;
• Requires firearm owners to carry firearm liability insurance;
• Limit the size of ammunition magazines;
• Allow counties and municipalities to regulate the sale, possession and ownership of firearms;
• Allow law enforcement agencies to destroy seized firearms;

Please call your representative now and ask them to sign the HB 454 and HB 86 discharge petitions right away! You can find out who represents you and their contact information here.

The discharge petitions for both bills require bi-partisan support. We know that there are lawmakers who would support one or both of these bills, with enough calls from their voters. Your lawmaker needs to hear from you. Call now.

These laws contain reasonable measures and are modeled on similar laws in other states that have helped reduce gun violence. It’s time for North Carolina to pass these laws.Together, we can make it happen!

--Becky, Sara, and the rest of the NCGV Team

NCGV
http://www.ncgv.org/