Governor Cooper Releases a Video on Critical Gun Safety Reforms to Protect Our Communities | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH: Today, Governor Roy Cooper released a video on critical gun safety reforms to protect our communities.

    Watch the video on YouTube here. The video is available for media use here.

    The full text of the video is below:

    Our despair is deep for the Robb Elementary School children and their families. We've seen it too many times. Mass shootings. Easy to get military assault weapons. Teachers turning themselves into human shields. Children murdered.

    What on earth is more important than protecting our children? What on earth is more important than stopping our schools, houses of worship and even grocery stores from turning into slaughter fields?

    I'm angry and I know we all are. Yet again.

    As Governor, I feel a strong responsibility to do all I can to keep our children safe at school and to prevent these horrible mass shootings. That's why I took executive action in 2019 to strengthen our background checks. We've mandated safety plans and coordinated schools and local law enforcement. I've vetoed dangerous bills that would have allowed guns in schools.

    But that's not enough. We need stronger laws.

    Republican leaders in Congress and in our state legislature need to stop the excuses and work with us to do more.

    A strong Universal Background Checks law is now sitting in the U.S. Senate. Pass it and the President will sign it. And while they're at it, they should ban assault weapons.

    Until they do, state legislators should close North Carolina's permit loophole for these weapons. Pass it and I'll sign it.

    I've proposed a red flag law that lets judges take guns away from violent criminals and people who are severely mentally ill. Pass it and I'll sign it.

    I've had gun advocates tell me that the problem is not assault weapons, but mental health. Well, there's a bill right now in the legislature that will provide billions of dollars for mental health through Medicaid expansion. Pass it and I'll sign it.

    We need Republicans in North Carolina and across the country to come to the table and pass these bills. Or we need to choose new leaders.

    We cannot forget this tragedy when it fades from the news. We cannot normalize the mass murder of children. We cannot wait any longer. It has to stop.


    Contact: Jordan Monaghan

    Phone: (919) 814-2100  •      Email: govpress@nc.gov