North Carolina Gun Sales Soar After Repeal of Unconstitutional Purchase Permit Law

Handgun Purchase Up Trend Arrow Chart Graphic Midjourney 5-15-2023

On March 29, 2023, the North Carolina legislature overrode Governor (D) Roy Cooper’s veto, eliminating the unconstitutional state requirement to obtain a permit to purchase a pistol.

The permit system was put into operation in 1919, with a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and racism, during the Woodrow Wilson presidency. It was in place for 103 years. It is a classic example of a statute that effectively chills the exercise of a Constitutionally protected right. To see how effective the statute was in chilling rights protected by the Second Amendment, consider handgun sales, as measured by the NICS system, in April 2022 and April 2023. The Bill, SB41, became law when the veto was overridden on 29 March 2023. The law’s potential chilling effect was removed for the entire month of April, 2023.

If there was a significant chilling effect on the exercise of rights protected by the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights, there should be an increase in handgun sales in April of 2023.

The handgun and long gun sales, as measured by the NICS system, in April of 2022, were:

  • handguns   1,655
  • long guns  12,435

The handgun and long gun sales, as measured by the NICS system, in April of 2023, were:

  • Handguns  46,040
  • Long guns 11,984

This is significant proof of an enormous chilling effect on the exercise of rights protected by the Second Amendment.

Handgun sales increased more than 27-fold after the law producing the chilling effect was repealed.

The total handgun sales in North Carolina were only 22,109 in 2022. After the law was repealed, in one month, handgun sales more than doubled over the entire previous year.

In the Bruen decision, the Supreme Court declared the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. The Supreme Court has held laws that chill the exercise of a right enumerated in the Constitution are unconstitutional.

From the mtsu.edu:

In Lamont v. Postmaster General (1965), the Court struck down a postal regulation requiring individuals who wished to receive communist literature to sign up at the post office. Although the program included no sanctions against recipients, the Court said it would chill individuals who wanted the material but were afraid to make their wishes known to the government.

The purpose of those who seek our disarmament is to reduce the number of guns and the number of gun owners. Their unproven claim is: fewer firearms will reduce illegitimate violence. However, most illegitimate violence happens in countries with few legitimate firearms. Rebecca Peters headed up the successful George Soros-funded drive in Australia to emplace draconian gun control laws. She is now the director of the International Action Network on Small Arms (www.iansa.org). She published an article in the UN Chronicle explaining the strategy.

This is an excerpt.  From un.org:

Reducing the domestic supply of new weapons. While most countries permit civilian ownership of small arms, they are at the same time seeking to contain it to moderate levels. What is considered a moderate or acceptable level of gun ownership in society is coming increasingly under scrutiny as governments recognize the need to strengthen their gun laws. Driven by regional and international agreements, popular pressure and expert advice, gun laws around the world are growing tighter and more uniform. The emerging norms include integrated renewable licensing and registration of firearms and owners, based on proof of a legitimate reason for possession, limits on the types and number of weapons a civilian can possess, minimum age limits, checks of criminal record and other personal information, safe storage requirements etc. As the new laws reduce the proportion of the population legally entitled to buy or possess arms, as well as the number each licensee can own, the flow of new weapons into the country will slow.

In 2022, the last year we have full statistics, there were National Instant Background Check Systems (NICS) checks for about 8.78 million handguns and 5.63 million long guns in the United States of America. Other sales and multiple sales are relatively minor and not included in those numbers. Using the same measure, in North Carolina in 2022, there were 22,109 NICS checks for handguns and 172,574 NICS checks for long guns. While the national total shows a preference for handguns over long guns of 1.56 handguns per long gun, the North Carolina total shows an enormously chilled preference of .128 handguns per each long gun or 1/12 of the national average. This confirms the chilling effect of the now-repealed North Carolina law. Laws in other states like New Jersey, which place burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment rights, are equally suspect. Some of those laws are already being challenged in the courts, such as California’s handgun roster law.


About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

Dean Weingarten

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linkman

NC’s PPP law was considered to be one of the least intrusive of any states’ firearm laws, yet it had a huge effect to repress gun ownership. Imagine what would happen if NY, HI, MD, NJ, or even the federal NICS/4473 requirements were ended.

Ledesma

Fun Fact: Each time the 2A is reinforced and showcased means liberals wasted years for nothing.

Boz

But….they are like termites. A little bit at a time. Doesn’t have to all happen in their lifetime. They are united and goal oriented, however long it takes. Our side only wakes up when huge attacks come. We need to be developing defenses constantly, not only after the bomb goes off.

Bob R

The numbers in the article for sales in NC for 2022 are severely flawed. Handgun purchases in 2022 required either a pistol purchase permit, or a concealed handgun permit. A NICS background check at the time of purchase was not required, only a permit was required. The NICS checks were performed when the buyer applied for either a PPP or CHP. Up to five PPPs could be purchased at one time, with only one background check. Any number of guns could be purchased with a CHP. So, the number in the article for 2022 handgun sales is much lower than… Read more »

Get Out

A private seller can have the potential buyer go to a LGS and they’ll run the background check on the buyer for a fee. If the guy balks at getting the BGC when I was selling a pistol, I wouldn’t sell it.

Protect defend serve

How expensive were these “permits”? Now poorer people can afford to protect themselves! They can put the cost of the permit toward their personal self ( and Family) defense. God bless North Carolina for passing such common sense self protection laws!

Bruce

Chill with the overused words chill and chilling

BigRed

Their gun crime rate will rise now because there are a lot of people that would have been weeded out of the system long ago that will now come out of the woodwork so to speak… I’m not in anyway condoning the purchase permit but am pointing out that there is going to be pressure backed up in the system that is now being released and the results will be used back against us… It is too bad they didn’t pass constitutional carry along with it in order to keep it under check.

Monkey Mouse

Yeah, sure – criminals were only getting their guns by purchasing at an FFL and filling out the 4473 like normal people. The permit was just a device used to suppress folks from buying since it is a monstrous PITA to go through the process, which in real terms does nothing to “weed out” criminals since they bypass it completely anyway.

BigRed

I’m not talking about ‘criminals’, i’m talking about unstable individuals that would otherwise not have the criminal connections or the will to get a purchase permit. Apparently i have to spell everything out on here… Everyone is so used to being in a dogmatic echo chamber that guys like ope have created on here and elsewhere that it has become way overly sensitized and ya’ll are truly crazy now… I mean i was pointing out the damge caused by the permit system that is so far unseen and is something we need to watch out for and that we need… Read more »

Get Out

IMOA, Unless the unstable individuals are reported to the police or NICS they’ll probably pass the Sherriff’s permit system and NICS check too. Look at some of the recent shooters, they’re known to police as violent, known to school officials as violent, are under psychiatrist care because they are violent and yet were able to buy firearms legally. If these people don’t get reported, they’ll pass the BGC.

Logician

You might be right, BR! The criminals could possibly see this as a “buying” opportunity, and make use of it so it’s easier for them to commit more and worse crimes! How long it will take for Joe Average Citizen to play catch up to counter the criminals is anybody’s guess, but it will be interesting to see what comes next and how soon!

Last edited 10 months ago by Logician
DIYinSTL

I would think that if there is an increase in gun crime that is significantly greater than the rest of the country, it could be due to greater availability but not for the reason you suggest. With a greater number of legally possessed handguns in circulation there is greater opportunity for theft. Studies have indicated that is the number one way that criminals acquire their firearms.