NC Task Force Pushes Tougher Gun Storage Laws, Education

North Carolina is sort of an interesting state when it comes to guns. It’s a southern state, which usually comes with a long pro-gun history, but it wasn’t all that long ago when the state had some questionable gun control laws on the books such as the permit-to-purchase requirement for handguns.

In theory, those days are over, though with Attorney General Josh Stein set to move into the governor’s mansion, you better believe he’s going to push for a return.

And a North Carolina task force isn’t really helping matters any.

North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force met with lawmakers Wednesday to suggest ways North Carolina gun storage laws can be strengthened.

The initiative is asking for a change in the way laws written on the subject are worded and to request more funding to go to the education of how people safely store guns.

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“Recommendations from the Task Force for 2024 reflect a continued focus on the importance of firearm safe storage through seeking sustained funding for the NC S.A.F.E. firearm safety campaign and the newly created NC Office of Violence Prevention, as well as an effort to strengthen the state’s child access prevention law,” said their most recent report from the Child Fatality Task Force.  

“Other 2024 recommendations continue the Task Force’s work on suicide prevention and the youth mental health crisis by seeking sustained funding for more school nurses, social workers, counselors, and psychologists and through endorsing legislation that targets addictive social media algorithms that harm kids.”

That doesn’t sound so bad, though, right? I mean, we’re talking about some wording on a couple of laws and a safe storage education campaign. Education is good, especially regarding firearm storage.

Except, that’s not everything they’re looking to do.

Lawmakers are also asking for changes in how adults are charged when children gain access to guns when it leads to bodily harm or death. 

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Currently, North Carolina laws say that only gun owners who live in a home with children can be held responsible for not safely storing their guns. A vote on Wednesday recommended changing that by removing the residency requirement. This will make all gun owners liable for the safe storage of their guns.

That’s a big problem for me.

While I happen to believe everyone should lock their guns up when not in use, this is a push for a mandatory storage law that would apply to everyone, regardless of their circumstances. Someone who lives out in the boonies where there’s not a child around for miles would be held to the same requirement as someone who lives in the city with eight kids in the house.

It shouldn’t be required for anyone, but this takes it a step further and makes the law even more idiotic.

What will actually happen is people who comply with the law will have a harder time accessing their guns in any case when they need it. Instead of simply dealing with the threats entering their homes, they’re fumbling with keys or combination locks at a time when fine motor skills are shot due to adrenaline coursing through their systems.

My hope is that this doesn’t happen. More education? Sure. Have a field day. I encourage it, even.

The rest? May it die in a fire because North Carolina doesn’t need it.