Constitutional carry legislation cleared the North Carolina House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 7-4 on Tuesday.
The vote comes just over a month after Breitbart News reported the North Carolina legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto and ended the state requirement for law-abiding citizens to acquire a permit in order to buy a handgun.
The Associated Press noted that the North Carolina House Judiciary’s passage of constitutional carry legislation “comes two days before a parliamentary deadline for policy legislation to clear one legislative chamber so it can be considered through the remainder of the two-year session.”
This means the bill will have to pass in one more committee and on the House floor in next two days in order to stay viable during this session.
The North Carolina constitutional carry bill also lowers the legal age for concealed carry to 18.
There are currently 27 constitutional carry states in the Union. Those states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. (Florida’s constitutional carry law takes effect July 1, 2023, and Nebraska’s law takes effect September 10, 2023.)
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.