John -- 

Great news! Yesterday we defeated H652, the Second Amendment Protection Act. Many thanks to our supporters and partner organizations for calling and emailing representatives to stop this dangerous bill. This is a big win for gun violence prevention in North Carolina.

We thank Governor Cooper for vetoing this dangerous bill and the 48 representatives that voted to sustain the veto.

The bill would have legalized the carrying of concealed firearms at places of worship associated with schools, weakened our concealed carry weapons permitting system and allowed EMS personnel to concealed carry when on the job with police. 

While representatives for the bill talked about churches needing to be armed and the unfairness of not allowing guns at churches with associated schools, guns are dangerous at any religious places of worship. Increasing the likelihood that places of worship become the site of wild-west-style shootouts does not protect worshippers. Civilians, armed or otherwise, rarely stop mass shootings.

Representatives in favor of the bill also erroneously claimed that “good guys with guns” have been proven to stop “bad guys with guns”. This is simply not true. The “good guy with a gun” myth has been debunked by multiple studies, including a 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research study that found right-to-carry laws actually increase rates of violent crime.^[1]

In addition, a FBI study of 160 active shooter incidents from 2000 to 2013 found that only one was stopped by an individual with a valid firearm permit. In contrast, 21 incidents were stopped by unarmed citizens.^[2]

The 48 representatives that sustained Governor Cooper’s veto of H652 ensured that our state’s gun laws were not weakened. We thank them and Governor Cooper for supporting gun violence prevention in NC.

We also thank you for supporting NCGV with your actions and financial gifts. You made it possible for us to take the lead in opposing the bill.

--Becky

PS - Check out this article and quote from one of our board members, Gerlad Givens, Jr., about Subway’s new policy that requests that people don’t openly carry weapons in their restaurants. 

“We were grateful when support grew quickly on the local, state and national levels,” Raleigh-Apex NAACP president, and North Carolinians Against Gun Violence board member, Gerald D. Givens Jr, said in a statement. “Subway joined with us to say safety comes first. This moment is a testament to the power of the people and businesses coming together to make a difference and being the change.”

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[1] Donohue J., Aneja A., Weber K. Right-to-Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State-Level Synthetic Control Analysis. November, 2018. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23510

[2] Defilippis E., Hughes D. Commentary: Gun-Rights Advocates Say Places That Ban Guns Attract Mass Shooters. The Data Says They’re Wrong. June 18, 2015. https://www.thetrace.org/2015/06/gun-rights-advocates-say-that-places-that-ban-guns-attract-mass-shooters-the-data-says-theyre-wrong/