The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s office is changing its process for handing out concealed carry permits. This comes after gun advocacy groups and gun owners sued Sheriff Gary McFadden in 2022, accusing him of intentionally slowing down the permit process.

What You Need To Know

  •  The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's office will stop sending all mental health records requests to the Veteran's Association

  •  It will now only send requests for applicants who served in the military

  •  Grass Roots North Carolina, a gun advocacy group, has long claimed the sheriff's office is intentionally slowing down the permit process

  • The change comes after two lawsuits from GRNC in the last three years

The biggest change is that the sheriff’s office will no longer send all mental health records requests to the Veteran’s Administration, but will only send those of applicants that served in the military.

Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC), one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against McFadden, accused the sheriff of trying to obstruct permits by overwhelming the VA with record requests.

The sheriff’s office says that the process of sending all mental health releases has been in place for years, and before McFadden was elected in 2018. It says the change was made to “provide the best customer service.”

Two other changes are coming to the application process.

Online applicants will no longer be able to pay in cash. Cash payments can still be made in person at the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office says the decision was made by their vendor.

All permit holders seeking renewals will now have to go to the sheriff’s office and start the process in person. Permit holders will no longer be able to submit their paperwork online.

GRNC President Paul Valone called the change a “temper tantrum,” and demanded that McFadden “cease his obstructionism in all forms.”

The sheriff’s office says the change was made to ensure that the correct documentation is received. It says that many people were not completing the paperwork properly, which caused delays in processing.

This is not the first time GRNC has sued McFadden. In 2022, a Superior Court judge issued a consent order against the sheriff in response to a 2021 lawsuit from the group that accused him of illegally delaying both pistol permits and concealed carry permits.

The order required the sheriff to make requests for mental records within 10 days of receiving a concealed carry application, and issue or deny the permit within 45 days.

In their 2022 lawsuit, the GRNC accused the sheriff of violating that consent order, continuing to delay permits by flooding the VA with mental health record requests.

The sheriff’s office says that they requested mental health records for every applicant because not everyone discloses their military status on the application, and that the process had been in place since 1996.

It said that between October 2022 and February 2023, it processed over 6,200 permit applications. However, that number includes pistol permits, which are no longer required in the state.

The North Carolina General Assembly repealed pistol permits in March 2023. GRNC was one of the main advocates for the change. The organization also advocated for a bill that would have repealed concealed carry permits, although that bill was ultimately shelved.