Today Governor Cooper vetoed HB 398, the “Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal.”
In May, HB 398 passed through the House in a vote of 69-48. The bill passed in the Senate in a vote of 27-20. HB 398 would have repealed the requirement to obtain a pistol purchase permit from the sheriff prior to the purchase or transfer of the pistol.
House Speaker Tim Moore said, “At the height of the pandemic, many North Carolinians felt they needed to purchase a handgun for personal protection, but they were faced with a problem: sheriff’s departments were overloaded with requests for pistol purchase permits. This bill would have provided an avenue for those individuals.”
He continued, “To deny North Carolinians a path to obtain that measure of personal protection is to deny a fundamental constitutional right. Governor Cooper is playing politics with our Second Amendment rights.”