NC Bill Would Allow Permitless Open Carry

I routinely tell people that I’m not a personal fan of open carry, though there are arguments I could make in favor of it. What I’ll also tell people is that I will vehemently defend the right to open carry because it should be a matter of personal preference, not legislative directives. 

Unfortunately, the law in many places are still too restrictive regarding open carry. While only a handful of states ban open carry almost entirely, including one that shouldn’t–I’m looking at you, Florida–others require a permit. Permissive open carry is better than no open carry, to be sure, but it’s not good enough.

In North Carolina, a bill has been introduced that seeks to fix that particular issue there.

Just a month into the 2025-26 legislative session, North Carolina state lawmakers have already proposed multiple laws that could significantly impact how residents carry and register firearms. 

House Bill 5 and Senate Bill 50 are the leading bills. Both would allow individuals to carry a concealed firearm without obtaining a permit.

Senate Leader Phil Berger shot down a similar proposal in 2023. This year, Berger is a co-sponsor of the bill. This and the twin bills in both chambers mark a significant shift in his thinking on the legislation. 

“The General Assembly has made incredible strides to defend the Second Amendment rights of North Carolinians,” Berger’s office wrote in a statement attributed to all of the bill’s Republican sponsors. “There is still more we can do though.”

According to WRAL, the House version would allow elected officials to carry concealed firearms into places where guns are otherwise banned, while the Senate version would not.

I’m just going to say that I’m not a fan of the House version because I do not support expanding rights for certain groups of people. Either everyone can carry or no one can. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men, which means there shouldn’t be a separate set of rules for lawmakers.

That said, I sincerely hope SB 50 becomes law. Yet, as noted, this proposal was shot down two years ago, so that doesn’t suggest great things this time around. However, that was then and this is now. Now, gun rights are on the ascendant in many places, which means that North Carolina may well pass this.

I sincerely hope so.

See, while I may not choose to open-carry most of the time, I do recognize that criminals haven’t been known to open-carry firearms since the Old West, and much of that is probably more of a result of popular culture than anything else. Today, bad guys don’t, even in states where it’s perfectly legal. They don’t want their prey to see them coming, so they conceal their guns. They don’t want to alert the cops or anyone else, so their firearms are hidden.

Allowing open carry doesn’t make anyone less safe, though some folks claim otherwise.

North Carolina should address this immediately and pass SB 50. Our rights aren’t a problem and it’s time to stop acting like they are. Do the right thing and do it right away.