NC moves closer to constitutional carry (06-12-2025--Hour3)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, I Daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, rite to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. North Carolina lawmakers attempt to get rid of the state's concealed carrie laws. That's not wrel Oh my gosh, Will Duran at Wil's. They're not repealing all of the concealed carry laws. You're still going to be allowed to have a concealed carry permit. It's just not going to be required to conceal carry you. If you are a legal purchaser in other words, not a prohibited purchaser, then you would be allowed to conceal carry like twenty nine other states allow. I really wish that some of these reporters that cover these issues would talk to somebody that knows conceal carry law, but they never do. They just talk to lawmakers who make speeches about I'm against it or even I'm for it. Go talk to somebody who does a concealed carry class. Those people know the law. You have to right. They know the process because they have to. They're in it every day. Talk to somebody who has a concealed carry permit. I'm someone who has a concealed carry permit. I will continue to maintain my concealed carry permit. Why in case I go to a state that requires said, mine will be up to date and I don't have to worry if I'm in a state that requires it or not. I will always have it. To me, that's worth it. Now, you don't have to. I'm not telling you to go out and do it, but to me, it makes sense. Now. Part of the problem here is that some sheriffs, like Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary not my fault. McFadden has taken steps and made efforts to obstruct people's abilities to get concealed carry permits or to get them renewed. He's been doing it ever since he got into office, and that creates this agitation among Second Amendment activists and advocates as well as concealed carry permit holders. So this is also referred to as constitutional carry because the Constitution says Congress shall make no laws right to a briak, the right to keep in bare arms. So it stands to reason that if you go through your background check when you purchase your firearm, which people do by the way, which a lot of reporters and a lot of anti gun activists are not aware of, but they do run your name through the federal database. In the federal database is supposed to flag people who are prohibited purchasers. Now, if you are not flagged, you get to buy the gun. So then the question becomes, how do you transport that gun? When are you allowed to walk around with that gun? And so in this state you're allowed to actually open carry. Once you get a firearm, you're allowed to open carry. What does that mean? It means I can have the gun on the outside of my belt with my shirt tucked in so you can see that I have the gun. And there are some people who prefer to do that. I am not one of them. I am not a person that open carries. Why several reasons. Number one, I recognize that there are a lot of people that are uncomfortable around guns. I get it, and I'm not looking to be antagonistic towards them, So I conceal carry so they never know and it makes them at ease. Now, the other side of that argument, which I understand as well, which is that, well, if more people open carried, then it would be less offensive. People would kind of get used to it, right, it would normalize it. And that's a fair argument. And maybe at some point in the future if everybody's open carrying, but they're not right now, but at some point, maybe then that does become the norm, and maybe I then open carry more often or at all. I doubt it because here's another reason I don't do it. I don't want to be the guy that the criminal seas and targets first. Right, So if I've got a firearm strapped to the outside of my waistband and somebody is, you know, they if I'm standing in line at the QT, you know, getting my Chica rones, my porkskins, and if I'm standing in because it's just protein people, that's the great snack. I love them anyway. So if you're just standing in line and I'm waiting to you know, check out, I don't want somebody behind me seeing the firearm and grabbing it from me or shooting me before they rob the store. You know, it just paints a target on your back. Now, the counter argument to that I've heard is that, well, it'll make people less likely to rob the place in the first place because they see you with firearms, So now they're going to be less likely to engage in the criminal activity. And I am not persuaded by that argument. I think it increases the risk by open caring. So I prefer concealing. This way, nobody knows. And by the way, when you have a population of you know, maybe two, three, four or five percent that is concealed carrying, the criminals don't know who has a firearm, and now they have to assume that anybody has the firearm because they don't actually know, And that then helps to create more security because you don't know who's armed and who isn't, So you have to assume then that everybody may have a firearm, and that may dissuade the criminal from hitting a certain target. Right, these are just my views. I am not demanding anybody else follow my lead on any of that. You make your own decisions. I'm a libertarian. I like I live and let live. You do you. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life. You know. That's why I don't even tell people have a nice day, because I'm not trying to force you into anything. You want to have a bad day, you go have a bad day. I don't care. Okay. North Carolina Republicans have passed constitutional carry. It's now going to the Governor's desk where I fully expect him to veto this. The challenge is going to be for the Republicans is that it's coming back. It would then come back for a veto override, and because of the vote count out of the House, they do not apparently have enough votes to override the governor's veto because two Republicans voted against this bill. North Carolina Republican's effort to get rid of the state again. It's not getting rid of the concealed carry laws. It's changing them to allow people who don't want to get the concealed carry permit but still are allowed to purchase the firearms. They are allowed to conceal carry because, by the way, spoiler, criminals conceal carry. Not sure you're aware of that, Yeah, they do. Criminals conceal carry their firearms, and a lot of times you may want to sit down for this part too. They're not allowed to buy the guns in the first place, so they are an illegal, prohibited buyer in the first place, and because they are a prohibited buyer, they conceal carry. So this way, if they do have any encounter with law enforcement, the cop doesn't know they've got the gun because they are a prohibited buyer, and they would get in a lot more trouble if, of course, the DA wants to prosecute that, which in some jurisdictions they don't. So this is referred to in the news story at WRAL as bipartisan opposition, because when two Republicans break ranks from the fifty nine other Republicans, that's bipartisan. But if you get two Democrats who break ranks, that is called a gop led bill. Okay, you don't get the bipartisan classification or description when it's two Democrats joining Republicans, but if you get two Republicans joining Democrats, then it is bipartisan. Those are the rules. Do not make these rules. This is the rules of Journalisming the concealed Carry Repeal Senate Bill fifty passed the States Senate in a party line vote in March, but it was held up in the House of Representatives for the last several months. During Wednesday's debate, Representative Keith Kidwell, Republican, dismissed concealed carry permits as an unconstitutional infringement on people's rights. Representative Phil Rubin, Democrat from Wake, said the permits require people to pass training and a background check and help improve public safety. Other states have already gotten rid of their concealed carry rules, Rubin said, and gun violence has since risen in all those states. Kidwell replied that many of those states still have lower murder rates than states with strict gun control rules. And I've looked a little bit into the science or the analysis behind this and can't I can't tell you got arguments between status toictions. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain and cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight, three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Email from Tim who says open carry people being uncomfortable with open carry is ignorance is bliss. Yeah, look, yeah, that's fine. Here's the thing, though, I don't need to denigrate other people's view on on gun laws and open carry, concealed carry, whatever this is. And I've had these arguments with I don't like the term, but you know, gun guys, but people who really love guns. And I have friends who really love guns, like a dear friend of ours up in Ashville. The guy has an arsenal okay, and he would buy, he would buy guns and never fire them. He would buy them because he liked them, and then he would put him in his safe and then a couple of years ago buy and then he sells them and he buys another gun with it. Just he loves doing the trading and the collecting and the buying and the selling and all of that. Okay. So like I don't dan agree, but one of the biggest issues, uh, And I would encounter this hopefully by now you know my views on guns, and I would get savaged by quote unquote gun guys if I would use any term that wasn't precisely you know, uh, descriptive of the thing. Here's the big one. Clips versus magazines, that's the big one. It's always been the big one. I don't understand why this one, no pun intended trips people's triggers like none other. Well, I shouldn't say that semi automatic is the other one, but that one actually is useful. When you're in a debate with a gun grabber and they start talking about, oh, semi automatic rifle, I always ask, can you just define for me what is semi automatic? Because that one question, preferably at the beginning of a conversation that you're having with somebody who is of the gun control crowd. If you ask them what a semi automatic is and they cannot define what that is for you, that's a really big definition. And I will just tell you it means one bullet per trigger. Pull right, you pull the trigger, one bullet comes out. That's it. It's around pete. No, I'm kidding, but like one pull one bullet, right, that's it. And automatic is pull the trigger, hold the trigger and it just goes boom boom boom bom boom boom bom boom, right and just keeps firing. Semi Automatic is basically every gun on the market. So I usually ask that question in the beginning of the conversation. Just to find out what kind of level of knowledge the person has when they are trying to take my gun. So that's all, but a lot of times it does more damage to the effort, right, to the political effort, to the movement to get hung up on certain things and to make some to make the fight about this one thing, and that's not the fight, right. You know, it's been very helpful in the Second Amendment arguments, is well, besides the looting and the rioting that we're seeing by the left, one of the things that's very helpful in these discussions has been Donald Trump. Because the very same people that want to take your firearm away are also saying that Donald Trump wants to impose tyranny and authoritarian despotism, right, And so I usually ask, so you believe Donald Trump is a threat to the democracy, Right, He's going to come round up people, He's going to take over everything. He's going to be the next Hitler, blah blah blah. Right. Well, if that's the case, wouldn't you want some protection against that? And I have yet to hear a cojed answer to this question. So you know, put that in your back pocket if you ever need it. It's a very helpful argument to me, Dan, welcome to the program. Hello Dan, how are you? I'm fine, How are you? I'm doing good? What's going on? Well, I am a concealed carry instructor, and I got to tell you, I'm not real comfortable with this whatever you want to call it, constitutional carry or whatever, because ninety nine percent of my students before they take my class, they cannot define deadly force, They cannot define when deadly force is allowed in the state of North Carolina, and many of them have never fired a gun in their life. Yep. And you know, make concealed carry permits free. I don't care. That's okay, But there should be some minimum amount of training in both the law and firearms safety and marksmanship for somebody to be able to carry a gun concealed. Well, if that's really ought to have that for open carry too. Well, that's what I was going to say. Yeah, I mean, that's what I was going to say. If that's the standard, then why would it only apply to concealed carry holders. It doesn't. But at least at least with open carry, you can see the guy and maybe go, I don't know, maybe he's an idiot. Maybe he's not well. But but then that standard would apply to everybody I owe it. Like for me, my default position is everybody around me, particularly on the roads, is an idiot. Oh yeah, right, So if I. Don't disagree with you, but but you know, I hear all too often about you know, you read somebody broke into my shed last night. They better not break in tonight because I'll shoot their butts. Well, then you're going to go to prison for the rest of your life. Yeah. See, this is not legal in North Carolina. And that's the importance of getting the training. And that's why I will always get the conceal carry permit is because you do get the level of training and you do get those I mean I went through the class twice. I did it twice and so right, because it's good to get a refresher and you know, laws change and stuff, and you get different examples with different instructors and you hear these, you know, these different stories of you know, like all the both of the instructors I had would they would tell a story and then say, okay, you know, what's the what do you think is the outcome kind of a thing, and then they walk through why it's legal, or why that shoot was not legal? And those are very helpful because if you don't have any expertise in this manner in the matter, then yeah, you may end up in prison. That's a very real possibility if you don't follow the law when you go through and get your firearm and you start carrying concealed yep. Well, maybe this conversation will convince people that they just buying something doesn't mean you know how to use it. Yeah, it's a very fair point, Dan. I appreciate the call, buddy, thank you, thank you. All right, take care. Here's another here's a message from russ. Having the permit is also helpful. God forbid if you ever have to use your weapon. Case law in constitutional carry jurisdictions around the country is shaping up to give a slight benefit of the doubt edge to permit holders compared to those who are not. Something to keep in mind to all right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with those sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why, well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media line landscape more transparent. The House passed Senate Bill fifty yesterday. This is the freedom to carry. It's a constitutional carry bill. It does not get rid of the concealed carry permit process. It actually on a second, let me pull it up here. It says right there, while General Statute fourteen four to fifteen thirty five makes it lawful to carry a concealed weapon in the state without obtaining a concealed handgun permit. It is often convenient to have a concealed handgun permit for the purpose of reciprocity when traveling in another state, to make the purchase of firearms more efficient, or for various other reasons. Therefore, the State of North Carolina shall continue to make a concealed handgun permit available to any person who applies for it and is eligible to receive it, pursuing to this article. For the avoidance of doubt, the concealed handgun permit system maintained pursu into this article does not prevent a person from carrying concealed according to this chapter, so in other words, it remains the perch. The concealed handgun permit process remains for people who want to take advantage of it. You can still do it, and there are reasons to still do it, and I would still do it, but me personally, I would The bill passed fifty nine to forty eight in the vote, and some Republicans voted against. The two of them did and other Republicans skip the vote. They took a walk as it's called in legislative terms. They took a walk rather than having to vote one way or the other on the bill. So obviously this is causing some heartburn for some Republicans, probably because they don't want to get tagged with, you know, any kind of connection to a contribution in violent crime rates rising or something like that. For the next election cycle. You can imagine the ads that will run. The two Republicans that sided with the Democrats in opposing the bill, former federal Prosecutor Ted Davis of Wilmington and Bladen County Farmer Bill Briston. Davis indicated that his constituents were concerned about the bill eliminating training requirements, and the bill also lowers the age at which you can purchase a handgun from twenty one down to eighteen. He also referenced how the current permit system allows the state to proactively block people from carrying guns if they are domestic abusers or have other criminal or mental health issues. Those safeguards would go away if Senate Bill fifty becomes law. You still have to go through the background check, and it's still against the law to purchase a firearm if you are a prohibited purchaser, and there is a list. You are not allowed to buy a gun or carry conceal if you are ineligible to own it possess it right. If you are under indictment for a felony, if you have been adjudicated guilty in any court of a felony, if you are a fugitive from justice, if you are an unlawful user of, or addicted to marijuana, alcohol, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance as defined another law. If you've currently or been previously adjudicated by a court to be lacking mental capacity or mentally ill. If you've been discharged from the armed forces under dishonorable conditions for one or more crimes of violence constituting a misdemeanor. So if you've been adjudicated guilty or received a prayer for judgment continued PJC or a suspended sentence for one or more crimes of violence constituting a misdemeanor. If you same thing for crimes of violence under this other constituted under this other law result to a conviction of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. So if you have that on your record, you can't buy, and you can't carry concealed. Right, So there's a whole list of prohibitions. So if you are attempting to follow the law, you would not be allowed to do this. Oh but pete, what if they're not following the law? Yeah, those are called criminals and they're going to do it anyway. Like that's the point. Let me go over and get Dan on. Hello, Dan, welcome to the show. Hello, Hey, what's up? So my point was about this semi automatic and automatic weapon. It's more about how the gun is. Fed than this is my point. This is what Dan, this is exactly what I was talking about. You're going to get in it right, right, You're right, you're going to go in and describe the machinery of the of the firearm. Right. Well, just the fact that a semi automatic pistol, the fastest you can pull the trigger is fast you can pull it, it will discharge a bullet until it's empty. Right, But automatic weapon will you hold the trigger back and it's going to empty it as quick as it possibly can. And that makes one semi automatic and the other one automatic. But a revolver, That's what I said. One bullet one trigger, one bullet, one pull, one bullet, but it's still not a semi automatic or an automatic. Yeah, this is I've seen this debate too, and like the people want to split hairs, gun people want to split hairs and they want to debate a revolver is it a semi automatic or is it not or whatever? And to me, it doesn't matter because when you're in a discussion with a gun grabber, the only thing that matters is do they understand the concept one bullet per trigger pull versus lots of bullets just by holding down the trigger. That's it. And if they don't even understand that, there's no point. And honestly, there isn't any point in the gun controlled debate between a revolver and a nine millimeter. It's because those are they both do the same things right, and the gung grabbers want all of them gone. So that's what that's what it is. Yeah, yeah, I certainly don't disagree with you on anything you said. I just feel it's important that the feeding of the bullet, how fast through. What makes everybody scared to death is when you hear that there was a semi automatic revolt or rifle used in some sort of shooting that was you know, unfortunate, and they get to how many bullets it'll it'll get out so fast. Well, I've got some friends that got some pretty fast fingers. Yeah, and they can get rid of thirty rounds and no time at all. Sure. Yeah, and they could actually compete with how fast an automatic weapon of fire? So it's like, you know, there isn't really that much difference between them. If you've got a really good fast trigger finger. Me, I'm an old man. Mine ain't that fast. Yeah. Well, and also probably more record with the semi automatic. I think that it's the term semi automatic that makes people more afraid. It's like the barrel shrouds. It's like, oh my gosh, it looks scary. Yeah, but it doesn't actually do anything like performance wise to make the gun more lethal, right, It's just it's scary. So yeah, I appreciate the call, Danielle, and I mean that's it's what I said, like, that's the key distinction is just one bullet per trigger pull. And if you're in a discussion with a gun control advocate, if they don't know that and you hear them use that word semi automatic, it's always helpful to just take a pause and say, what does semi automatic mean? Can you define what that means for me? And if they can, good, then you both understand what you're talking about. You can proceed in the discussion. But if they don't understand the difference, then you know, right then and there they don't really know what they're talking about, which I have found to be the case with a lot of gun grabbers. All right, so spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations. You've got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photo slides? Are they preserved? Because over time, these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, losing the magic of yesterday. At Creative Video, they help you protect what matters most. Their expert team digitizes your cherished family moments and transfers them onto a USB drive, freezing them in time so they can be enjoyed for generations to come. I urge you do not wait until it's too late this spring, celebrate your past, Visit Creative Video today and let them preserve your legacy with the love and care that it deserves. Creative Video Preserving Family Memories since nineteen ninety seven. Located in mint Hill, just off four eighty five. Mail orders are accepted to get all the details that createavideo dot Com. One last thing here from Tim is an email regarding firearm training for concealed carry. I do agree that someone who owns a firearm needs training, especially to carry. I used to be a match director of a uspsa iPSC match, which is competitive shooting. You would not believe some of the safety violation, Oh I would I have seen over the years, usually by newbies to the sport. Most regular people are woefully undertrained to carry a concealed firearm. However, I'm a very strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Yeah, and this is the thing, Like, you're always going to have morons that go out and get the gun and that's it. And they think, now, I, you know, I have completed whatever I needed to complete in order to have this, But no, you it's just like any other tool. You should train on it become familiar with it, and I've talked about this on the air for years. When I was deciding, you know what kind of gun, I did a lot of research because the first thing was, okay, what kind of gun do you get? You get a rifle or a pistol, and depends on what you needed for okay, home defense, and so pistol or a rifle. And I looked at the various articles and the people you know that were proponents and opponents of various weapons and such, and came down on the side of a revolver, which also doubles as a very handy, concealed carry firearm. This was years ago, and the reason why it was that, like I remember having this discussion in this very seat when I was on nine to Midnight years ago, and I remember somebody saying, oh, it's you know, the worst sound of a burglar rule here is the racking of the shotgun or something like that. And my thought on it was, I don't want them to hear me. I have no desire to, you know, to make them scared if they have a firearm, so then they start shooting at me when I'm racking it. But also the main thing was that the barrel on a long gun is going to be harder to you know, you they can close the distance easier and grab the barrel, and if I have to turn around a corner or something, then that's a harder turn to make because there's a longer barrel. But also I knew I wanted to get a concealed carry permit, and so I opted for the pistols. So it's just one gun that I have to train on. I don't have to worry about training on multiple firearms. And the reason why I went revolver was simply because I wanted to be able to point and shoot and not have to worry about anything going wrong with it if the jams pull the trigger. Again, like, there's a reason it was the service weapon for law enforcement for like one hundred years, right, So it's an easy weapon. So that was our first choice. Right, So I did the research. But I also know that a lot of guys, a lot of people girls too, But a lot of people are not going to do that kind of research. They're not going to take it as seriously as they probably should. And so I get that. I get that criticism and the concern I do. I understand. In the House, representatives debated the bill for roughly an hour, with Democrats speaking out against the bill, pointing to various statistics like the Stanford study. This one is the one that they always rely on that shows permitless carry or constitutional carry states face a thirteen to fifteen percent violent crime increase over the next decade, which, like, I'm not so sure that's the big takeaway that it's a violent crime increase. Why would there be an increase in violent crime when you don't have the permits any longer Because the criminals who are engaging in the violent crime, we're not getting the permits in the first place. They're con stilled carrying in the first place. They're doing that already. Countering what he called cherry picked statistics, Representative Kidwell said, eighty three percent of states with permitless carry have homicide rates below the national average, while eighty four percent of states have lower violent crime rates than they did prior to permitless carry. So I went, I looked at the Stanford study. I saw some other stuff too. I looked at John Lott's stuff, and then the analysis of the lot. It was a lot and mustard I think was his name in the library with the candlestick. But they were going back and forth and I started reading through it and that I read a meta analysis of all of this stuff, and it's basically like there are so many variables they cannot determine the like you can't draw a line. It seems between a connection between Hey, we went constitutional carry and because of that we saw this bad thing, this negative result the you know was it. Correlation is not causation, and so that's where we are left. And so absent any kind of causation effect that's proven, then I think we joined the twenty nine other states and to prove it. Now, I don't know if they're going to have the votes in the House to do so, but we shall see. All Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.