NRA backstabs NC gun owners on Constitutional Carry

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NRA backstabs NC gun owners on Constitutional Carry

Published: Sunday, May 28th, 2023 @ 12:46 pm
By: John Steed ( More Entries )

The National Rifle Association has shot NC gun owners in the back when its regional lbbbyist from Richmond arrived at the last minute to oppose the bill in the General Assembly to insitutute Constitutional Carry in North Carolina. Twenty Seven other states already have it. Richmond-based NRA lobbyist D. J. Spiker got RINO state Senate President Pro Tem PHil Berger to announce the bill would be dead on arrival in the Senate, leading it to also be pulled from the House calendar where it was on the verge of passing.

The Constitutional Carry bill sponsored by Rep. Keith Kidwell was backed by the largest state level gun rights group in North Carolina, Grass Roots North Carolina and by the other major national guns rights groups, the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun RIghts.. The NRA had been given a copy months ago and had not expressed any problems with it until its last minute manuver killed it.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/e44d2086-fdc4-43d1-9c7c-2fd1b3cee678

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Fredrick Samuel said:

( May 28th, 2023 @ 6:27 pm )

We have been trying since 2017 to get this passed in North Carolina and it really hurts to have the NRA stop this bill. I know alot of people who are moving away from the NRA because of this however we will continue to keep pushing our politicians to get this passed into law regardless of what the RHINOS want this may be a setback and make our fight longer but we will get it done I encourage everyone to call your representative daily until it becomes law

Big Bob said:

( May 28th, 2023 @ 4:52 pm )

I agree. Absolutely everyone has the right to carry. No permit or training required. 18 and up. If stupid liberal think a high body count or shot up schools changes anything, they have another thing coming. Stack those bodies like chord wood. It don't mean nothing. Drive on.

Steven P. Rader said:

( May 28th, 2023 @ 2:56 pm )

Here is the whole article from The County Compass. It is hard to read on the screenshot.

Who killed NC's Constitutional Carry bill?

by Steven Rader

Twenty seven states have now passed Constitutional Carry legislation that recognizes the Constitutional right of law abiding citizens to carry guns without the need of a permit. North Carolina was poised to be number twenty eight but that fell apart recently Divisions among gun rights groups and among Republican legislative leaders led to the bill being pulled from the legislative calendar.

To understand how this happened, one has to understand that there are a number of gun rights organizations which are active. The oldest and best known is the National Rifle Association (NRA), but disagreements with some of NRA's policies has led to the growth of other national gun rights groups, most prominently the Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR). GOA was founded by a former national director of the NRA who broke with that organization over NRA's political endorsement policy of heavily favoring incumbents, even if they were relatively weak on gun issues and the challenger was a strong gun rights advocate.

Added to the mix at the state level is a home grown North Carolina gun rights organization, Grassroots North Carolina (GRNC). Over the last few years, it has been GRNC that has been by far the most active of all the gun rights groups in promoting gun rights legislation in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Since 2017, gun rights advocates, led by GRNC have been pushing Constitutional Carry legislation, and have passed a bill out of the state House on one prior occaision. In the 2023 legislative session, Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort) introduced as chief sponsor HB 189 to authorize Constitutional Carry in North Carolina. The bill was a top legislative priority of GRNC and was backed by GOA and NAGR. Its language was generally similar to earlier bills sponsored by former Reps. Mike Speciale (R-Craven) and Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus). The NRA was informed of the bill and its contents early on.

HB 189 cleared the necessary House committees, had the blessing of the House Speaker and was calendared for vote in the House just prior to the “crossover deadline”. Then Richmond, Virginia based regional NRA lobbyist D.J. Spiker swept into Raleigh at the last minute to oppose the bill. Firearms training is a profit center for the NRA and Spiker raised last minute objections to the training provisions of HB 189. A North Carolina firearms industry publication also alleged that the NRA was jealous that it had not been involved on this legislation and could not claim even partial credit for it.

While Spiker tried to rattle cages in both the House and Senate, it was in the Senate that he struck paydirt. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger announced that the Senate would not take up the bill. With no path to passage in the Senate, Speaker Moore then pulled it off the House calendar, too. Rep. Kidwell did get HB189 referred back to committee to add a fiscal note, a manuever that can get itpast the crossover deadline. GRNC is redoubling its efforts to try to get the bill passed, but its prospects look bleak at this point.

Already there are recriminations in the gun rights community. The North Carolina firearms newsletter “Ammoland” has called on gun rights supporters to resign their NRA memberships over the NRA's opposition to HB 189.

The exact path Spiker took to get Berger to spike the bill is not known, but it has been pointed out that Sen. Jim Perry (R-Lenoir) is a close personal friend of Spiker's boss at NRA, and also as Senate majority whip, close to Berger. Perry was in a key position to exert influence on the outcome, one way or the other this time, and likely will be in the future as well.

Constitutional Carry is an important issue to gun rights supporters, who have been working topass it in North Carolina for several years. This setback was not expected, but groups like the GRNC are already looking at future possiblities to move this bill or one like it. Rep. Kidwell has worked tirelessly to pass it, and is committed to redoubling his efforts going forward.