Relaxed concealed-firearms rules find support in NC legislature, despite police opposition

Proposals to allow most North Carolina adults to carry a concealed firearm without a permit passed key legislative committees this week with support from gun rights advocates — and despite opposition from law enforcement officers and medical professionals.

To legally carry a concealed gun in North Carolina, people currently need a permit. To get a permit, applicants have to pass a background check by their local sheriff, pay an $80 fee, and pass tests to prove they can shoot relatively accurately and that they understand the relevant laws on gun possession and self-defense.

All of that would go away if Senate Bill 50 becomes law. Under the proposal, almost anyone who is 18 or older, and not otherwise banned from having a firearm, would be allowed to carry concealed without needing a permit. Permits would still be offered, however — mostly for people who want to be able to carry weapons in other states that recognize North Carolina permits.

The Senate measure advanced in committees Tuesday and Wednesday, ultimately passing a floor vote Thursday. It now goes to the House. It now goes to the House, which is considering a similar proposal, House Bill 5.

On Wednesday the top Republican leaders of both chambers, Sen. Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, both said they expected their respective chambers to pass one version or the other. The House and Senate versions of the bill are virtually identical, except the House bill would also allow elected politicians to carry concealed firearms in places other citizens can't.

Permits unconstitutional?

Some critics say the concealed carry permit process, which can sometimes take a few months in more populous counties, takes too long and puts too many burdens on gun owners. Others say the system is simply unconstitutional and that the Second Amendment means anyone should be able to carry a concealed firearm, regardless of whether they have the government’s permission to do so.

Most Republican-led states have already scrapped their concealed carry rules in the past few years, leaving North Carolina as a notable outlier where conservative politicians are increasingly feeling the heat from their voters and donors to join the trend.

“Good people with guns stop bad people with guns,” bill sponsor Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, said Tuesday during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he serves as chairman.

Britt added that North Carolina already allows 18-year-olds to openly carry firearms with no training or background checks. He said it just makes sense to treat concealed carry the same.

A similar bill was proposed in 2023 in the state House and appeared to have momentum, until Berger signaled his opposition. Now, however, Berger is facing a 2026 primary challenge backed by critics who say he’s not conservative enough, and Berger has since signed onto the concealed-carry repeal as a co-sponsor.

Hoping to stand in the way, however, are gun control advocates and Triangle-area law enforcement leaders.

Law enforcement, doctor opposition

The bills have faced opposition from gun-control advocates, as well as some law enforcement officers and medical professionals.

Anna Ruderman, a Duke Health pediatrician, pointed to risks faced by health care professionals — people such as her husband, an emergency department doctor.

"I’m afraid every day when [my husband] goes to work," Ruderman told lawmakers Wednesday during another Senate committee meeting. "Have you ever done CPR on someone who has a loaded gun that you didn’t know is there?"

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead came to Tuesday’s committee hearing to oppose the bill, as did an entire patrol squad of Raleigh police officers.

Raleigh Police officer Hattie Gawande said she wasn’t speaking on behalf of the police department. But she made sure to point out her fellow cops sitting in the audience. “Concealed carry permits protect police officers and the public,” she told the committee. “It allows us to intervene when someone dangerous is carrying concealed and shouldn't be.”

Before Gawande spoke, Britt dismissed similar suggestions made by Democratic lawmakers. “This doesn't protect criminals, because if they're criminals, they're unlawfully carrying anyway,” Britt said.

Gawande, however, said the law would absolutely protect criminals — by taking away officers’ probable cause to stop people they believe to be illegally carrying a concealed gun.

Just this past weekend, Gawande said, a woman was walking home in a part of Raleigh with known gang activity when a group of men approached her with a gun — but then saw she was carrying a baby and decided to let her go. The woman called 911 and Gawande responded to the call, telling lawmakers Tuesday “this woman was nearly the victim of robbery, or worse.”

Gawande drove to the neighborhood and believes she found the men, including one who was concealing a pistol in his jacket. If SB 50 becomes law, she told the committee Tuesday, it would take away her authority to chase or arrest people like that armed man in the future.

“Under current law, I could pursue and detain him on suspicion of carrying concealed, confiscate his gun and, if the situation warranted, arrest him for a concealed carry violation,” Gawande said. “... If this bill passes, when the same situation occurs again, I have to just let them go.”

Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg, told the committee’s Republican members to consider what it will mean to take away police officers’ ability to ask people to prove they’re legally carrying a gun. “You're going to kill police officers with this bill,” Mohammed said.

Britt told Mohammed he disagreed, and that he wasn’t aware of any law enforcement lobbying groups who formally oppose the bill.

Later in the meeting Birkhead, the Durham Sheriff, told lawmakers the state Sheriffs Association had yet to take a formal stance either for or against the bill but that he’s personally against it, particularly since it would allow untrained teenagers to legally carry guns. Currently people must be 21 years old to carry a concealed weapon, if they can pass the training.

The proposal would put more guns in public, put deputies on edge, and increase the chance of violence in even the most minor of law enforcement interactions with the public, he said.

“My deputies in Durham County will have to treat every traffic stop, every encounter, like a felony stop,” Birkhead said. “That puts everybody at risk.”