Restaurant Carry In NC Officially Dead

Those Republicans in the North Carolina State Senate who were afraid to bring HB 111 - the restaurant carry bill - to a vote have won the day. The Senate adjourned early Tuesday morning and the House followed at 3pm. With the adjournment any bills without final votes died and that included HB 111

Grass Roots North Carolina sent out the following email alert and reaction regarding restaurant carry yesterday:

NC General Assembly adjournment today makes it official: HB 111 is dead.

As Legislators from the NC General Assembly pack their bags and head home after a hard two months of work, the leadership in the Senate should go back to their districts and explain why they left gun owners out in the cold. It seems that the main resistance to this bill which would have allowed families to protect themselves while dining in public came from the Republican NC Senate Leadership.

Senate Pro Tem Phil Berger and Senate Rules Chair Tom Apodaca shuffled HB 111 off to various unrelated Committees until the clock ran out. Despite your calls and emails asking them to reconsider their actions, they thumbed their noses at the gun owners of North Carolina.

We Will Remember in November

Apparently once they took their seats of power, they no longer needed to listen to you. In November, we have a chance to send a message back to our leaders in the Senate. Our message is simple: We will Remember in November!

Support those candidates who have proven they will stand up and fight for your rights, and remember those that have shown they will duck and cover when the first sign of resistance appears. Remember to vote, and vote carefully.

The fight for passage of a bill that will allow families to protect themselves when they are in public will continue. New legislation will be introduced next year when the NC General Assembly comes back to work... and we will be there. We will not rest until North Carolina finally joins over 40 other states which already provide some sort of “Restaurant Carry” provisions . No more lies, no more dodging, it’s time to get this passed.

While Sen. Phil Berger does have a Democrat opposing him in the General Election in November, Sen. Tom Apodaca is unopposed. I have been studying their campaign finance reports and will have a post on that later.

The other component of HB 111 besides restaurant carry was a clarification of definitions regarding concealed carry in parks. That, too, died when HB 111 was shunted from committee to committee. As a result, counties and municipalities are left without the needed guidance on what they can or can't do regarding carry in parks. As a result, you have cities like Winston-Salem including greenways as prohibited areas for concealed carry as they have declared them "athletic facilities". Absent the clarification from the General Assembly, it will be left up to the courts to decide.