Second Amendment Freedom Rally Attracts Attention of General Assembly | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report, Dan Way, is an associate editor of the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Lawmakers plan legislation that would bolster self-defense rights

    RALEIGH     Flag-waving, placard-toting gun rights advocates from around the state and Virginia rallied in front of the North Carolina legislative building on Tuesday to deliver a stirring message to lawmakers: "We will not compromise."

    "We're experiencing an unprecedented attack on our right to keep and bear arms," event organizer Josette Chmiel said to several hundred participants, who had joined in prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and an impromptu choral burst of "God Bless America".

    "We are here because we will not accept a slow erosion of these rights, and we will not compromise on any legislation restricting our Second Amendment," said Chmiel, director of development for the pro-gun rights group Grass Roots North Carolina.

    The demonstrators should have supporters inside the General Assembly, as several lawmakers said they planned to introduce legislation defending the self-defense rights of gun owners and expanding the allowable use of firearms in certain areas outside the home.

    One speaker after another at the Second Amendment Freedom Rally proclaimed fealty to the nation's constitutional amendment guaranteeing its people the right to keep and bear arms.

    Some offered historical primers on the Second Amendment's purpose - which is not for the protection of hunting or skeet-shooting rights, they said. Others warned of the perils to all rights if citizens are deprived of the capability to defend themselves against a tyrannical government.

    The crowd comprised people in business suits and flannel shirts. Some wore ball caps and others donned stylish flat hats. Some sported N.C. State sweatshirts and others wore Duke apparel. But they all supported the calls to action with throaty cheers, and listened intently to politicians' announcements of pending legislation.

    State Sen. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg, said he is working to draft a bill that would "minimize or eliminate gun-free zones."

    He blamed "the mentally disturbed and the sociopaths" for recent mass shootings. "Even though they're disturbed, they're not stupid, and that's why the gun-free zone is something we have to address," Tarte said.

    State Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, said he hopes to amend the state constitution to prohibit punishment for the carrying of pistols and legal knives unless they are used to commit a crime. School campuses and federal buildings would be among locations those weapons would not be allowed.

    Under the proposed amendment, any attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens "shall be resisted by the full power of the state of North Carolina. And citizens who have committed no crime have the right personally to resist the confiscation of their weapons," he said.

    Pittman is working on companion legislation that teachers and other workers in a school could be authorized to carry weapons on campus.

    "We were all touched and deeply shaken by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary," he said.

    He wants to establish a program to allow willing school participants to undergo extra training that would confer constable status. Those holding a constable permit could carry their weapons into schools, banks, and other buildings.

    Eugene Temel of Winston-Salem supports the idea of allowing school personnel to be armed and doing away with gun-free zones.

    "I'm a retired school teacher, and when those kids got massacred like they did, I really felt bad about it," Temel said. "Almost every one of those (recent mass) shootings, if you noticed, have been in areas where you're not supposed to be carrying a gun."

    "You've got how many police here that protect the legislators?" he said, pointing to the heavy police presence around the legislative building.

    "We don't have that ability, you know what I mean? When you call a policeman he's coming to clean up the scene," he said.

    He said he once had a female principal who kept a gun in her desk drawer. A custodian who had to open and close a Pittsburgh inner-city school where gang shootings and murders occurred on school property after hours carried a gun. Though they broke school policy, they should have the right to be able to protect themselves, Temel said.

    Paul Valone, director of Grass Roots North Carolina, said he is working to find sponsors to introduce a number of bills this session.

    "We're pushing for restaurant carry, we're pushing for campus carry, we're pushing for the provision that was stripped out of House Bill 650 the last time for guns in locked vehicles and places of employment," Valone said.

    "We're pushing for concealed carry at events for which admission is charged. We're also looking for some cleanup on the concealed handgun language because we've got some sheriffs who are imposing extra requirements on concealed handgun applicants," he said.

    "I've got sheriffs requiring notarized character affidavits before they'll process an application. Others are requiring the applicant to get mug shots with the sex offenders before they'll give them a concealed handgun permit. Others are saying they won't issue concealed handgun permits to people with pending traffic infractions," Valone said.

    Stephanie Emery and Cindy Carviou of Clemmons said they came to the event to show their solidarity in preserving constitutional rights.

    "We sense a presence of threats to our civil liberties and our rights, and if we don't stand up while we have a chance, there may come a time when we don't have a chance, so we're doing what we can while we can," Emery said.

    "I joined the NRA and I don't even have a firearm, but this is how strongly I feel to stand up for the rights that I think are being attacked," Emery said.

    "I think they need to do something about the mental health laws. They're letting people run around and a lot of these people who get guns are doing it illegally," Carviou said.

    "I wasn't paying attention to politics until recently," she said. "I saw a lot of things going on that were wrong. I'm a Christian and I don't like where we're headed."

    She doesn't own a gun, but "I'm thinking about getting one, a concealed carry," she said, "just to let them know we can't be messed with."

    WPTF talk radio host Bill LuMaye, the keynote speaker, said quotes from the period of the nation's founding make it clear "the Founding Fathers agreed an armed population makes for good government."

    The Bill of Rights "is not there for your benefit in the sense that it's granting you rights," he said. "You already have those rights. It's there to prevent the government from taking those rights away."

    He said the country has slipped away from those constitutional moorings, and used passage of Obamacare as an example.

    "The king has decided we must buy insurance, and if we do not buy this insurance the king will send his army to make us pay the king's penalty," LuMaye said. "Our fellow Americans can't recognize tyranny."