North Carolina’s pistol permit law — which required people to get approval from a county sheriff before buying a handgun — was repealed Wednesday.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly overturned Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the repeal — the first time that’s happened to a Cooper veto since 2018.
The GOP was able to override the veto when Mecklenburg’s Tricia Cotham and two other Democratic House members didn’t vote. That gave the Republicans the three-fifths supermajority of members present.
Cooper had successfully vetoed a similar bill in 2021.
Republicans said the permit law, passed in 1919, is no longer needed because of federal background checks. Pistol buyers will still be subject to those.
Some conservatives also said the century-old law was racist, passed during Jim Crow in order to keep African Americans from arming to protect themselves from violent white supremacists. At least one scholar who has studied the issue, Andrew Willinger of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said there is no direct evidence that lawmakers were targeting Black North Carolinians with the law.
They also complained that residents of urban counties were being denied their Second Amendment rights because it often took months to receive a permit.
But Democrats said it makes no sense to further weaken gun control regulations.
House members were not allowed to debate the override.
After the vote, the progressive group Carolina Forward said it would hold the three Democrats accountable for missing the vote and that they “choose political expediency over their constituents.”
Cotham said she had a doctor’s appointment to treat her long COVID during the vote, and that both sides knew she wouldn’t be there. She said the override was unfortunate and that the repeal is dangerous.
We are distressed and deeply sympathetic for the personal health issues @triciacotham is going through. If she is unable to perform her duties as an elected official, she should resign in favor of an appointee who can more effectively represent Mecklenburg. #ncpol https://t.co/XIZ7g2Ovtp
— Carolina Forward (@ForwardCarolina) March 29, 2023
In reply, Carolina Forward said on Twitter that they sympathize with Cotham but added that she should resign if she’s not able to fulfill her position’s duties.
Twelve of the 13 members of Mecklenburg’s legislative delegation are Democrats.
House Speaker Tim Moore named Cotham a co-chair of the K-12 education committee, and she has voted with the GOP on some issues. She had previously voted against repealing the pistol permit law.
House Democratic leader Robert Reives said in a statement that “elections have consequences” and that the only way to “change direction” on gun safety is to elect different legislators in next year’s election.
