The North Carolina General Assembly voted Wednesday to override the governor’s veto on a gun bill. Within hours, North Carolina sheriff’s offices began announcing they would immediately stop requiring people to get permits to buy handguns.
The new law drops the requirement for people in North Carolina to get a permit from their country sheriff before they can buy a handgun. Republicans in the state Senate voted on party lines Tuesday to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill. The House followed suit Wednesday.
“Effective immediately, any person seeking to purchase or transfer a handgun in North Carolina is no longer required to apply to the sheriff for a pistol purchase permit,” the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office announced less than 90 minutes after the Wednesday vote.
“All pistol purchase permitting laws in North Carolina have been eliminated by the enactment of Senate Bill 41, Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections,” the sheriff’s office said.
Other sheriff’s offices around the state soon started following suit. But not all sheriffs were happy about the new law.
“Today is a sad day,” Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said. “Not only does it erode the power and the authority of the sheriff’s office, but there is no way that it is going to make our communities safer.”
Until Wednesday, North Carolina’s sheriff’s offices were responsible for doing state and federal background checks on people who wanted to buy handguns. These checks went beyond the federal checks done by gun dealers.
"Within moments of the House’s final action this morning, the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association notified all of North Carolina’s 100 sheriffs that the decision of the legislature is effective immediately,” said association president Charles Blackwood, who is also the sheriff of Orange Co.
Republicans hailed the veto override as a victory for gun rights.
“After years of Gov. Roy Cooper obstructing our Constitutional rights, today marks a long overdue victory for law-abiding gun owners in our state,” Republican Sens. Danny Earl Britt, Warren Daniel, Jim Perry and Bobby Hanig said in a joint statement.
“By successfully overriding Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, we have guaranteed and secured Second Amendment rights for North Carolinians, and set forth a path to overcoming any future impediments from the lame-duck governor,” they said.
This is the first successful veto override by the GOP-controlled General Assembly since 2018. The Republicans gained seats in both chambers of the legislature in the last election, with a supermajority in the Senate and the party is one seat shy in the House.
Three Democrats were not in the House for the vote Wednesday, allowing Republicans to override the veto with 71 votes.
The state’s top Democrats criticized the new law.
“Today’s move by the General Assembly to repeal our pistol permit law has made our communities less safe. Now, dangerous people – like violent criminals and domestic abusers – will be able to more easily get their hands on guns,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat who is running for governor next year.
“Too many worry that their kids may not come home from school. Gun violence is a terrifying threat, and eliminating background checks will make the job of law enforcement officers more difficult,” Stein said.
Beyond repealing the pistol purchase permit stature, the law also allows people to carry a concealed weapon on private school property when it’s being used as a place of religious worship.
A third provision in the bill created a new initiative to promote safe gun storage.
Spectrum News 1 reporter Patrick Thomas contributed.