NCGV, only relevant because someone keeps calling them

A gun bill that I pretty much ignored was House Bill 271.

North Carolina House Bill 271, Probation/Parole Officer No Concealed Carry Required Act, was signed into law in late June without fanfare by Gov. Bev Perdue.

The new law will take effect Dec. 1 and allow all certified probation and parole officers throughout the state to carry an unpermitted concealed weapon both on duty and off duty. These officers will not be allowed to have a gun on their person when drinking alcohol, using an unlawful controlled substance, or being under the influence of those intoxicants.

I dislike special rules for law enforcement officers. I think that law enforcement officers should have to follow all the same laws we do. If it’s illegal to carry a gun without a permit, then off duty law enforcement officers should have to get a permit. In practice, however, this is a losing argument. For some reason police officers get upset if you make them follow the same rules as the rest of us, and no one wants to publicly oppose something that the police want.

What’s interesting about this story is how they bothered to take a statement from Roxane Kolar.

Roxane Kolar, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said her organization did not oppose H.B. 271 because parole and probation officers usually undergo extensive firearms training. Even so, she said NCGV is concerned about the growing number of exceptions to North Carolina’s conceal carry permit system.

Ahh, that mythical “extensive” firearms training that the cops get. When most police officers qualify once or twice a year, and rarely practice in between, “extensive” actually means “almost none.” I’ll never understand why they keep pretending that guns are all that complicated to operate. And since we aren’t expected to use our firearms except in self-defense, we don’t really need all that much training on use of force laws like the police do.

The group fought against House Bill 650, also signed into law by Perdue. Among other things, it expands the public areas open to people possessing permitted concealed weapons to include state parks and state-operated rest areas.

Except that they didn’t “fight” so much as whine and give up.

“NCGV is not opposed to North Carolinian’s right to have concealed carry permits,” Kolar said. “Our permitting process, while not perfect, goes a long way to ensure that permit holders are well-trained citizens in good standing who will not be a danger to themselves or others.

Um, well, yes NCGV is opposed to people like you and me having a CHP. Roxane told me directly that she wanted to reduce the permit to a 2 year renewal, while eliminating “Shall Issue” from the law. She wants to return the state to the days when the Sheriff could arbitrarily decide to grant or deny a permit with no oversight.

Elected officials should endeavor to pass legislation which enforces our state’s strong gun laws, rather than circumventing them.”

Here’s where she really runs off the rails. Enforcement is an Executive Branch function. It’s the Governor’s, Attorney General’s, and Police force’s job to enforce the law. It’s the Legislature’s job to write the law. Anyone with just a few days of basic high school Civics would know that. I think that what she actually means is that she wants new laws to further infringe on our Second Amendment rights. With the fact that we currently have a veto proof majority in the Senate and we are within 5 votes of a veto proof majority in the House, and the fact that the Republicans are in charge of redistricting, she’s living in a dream world if she thinks that new gun control laws are ever going to see the light of day.

Since NCGV is powerless to move its agenda forward, why did they even bother calling her to get a quote? No one calls the KKK to get an opinion on mixed race marriage. Why do they ask anti-gun bigots about our gun rights?

=============================================================================

Do you RSS? Don't know what an RSS Feed is?

Watch this video

Subscribe in a reader

Save time and read all the latest blog news first.