Landing in my inbox Monday afternoon, sent by Senate Leader Phil Berger’s office.
Statement on Gov. Cooper’s Veto of Bill to Repeal Pistol Purchase Permit
Pistol permit created by Jim Crow Democrats to keep guns away from black people
UNC Law Review: “Black applicants [for pistol permits] are rejected at a rate near three times as high as White applicants”
Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper today vetoed legislation to repeal a policy instituted by Jim Crow Democrats to keep guns away from black people.
Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) said, “Pistol purchase permits were created by Jim Crow Democrats to keep guns away from black people, and data shows that black applicants are still rejected at a higher rate than white applicants.”
Edwards continued, “In any other context, Democrats would view these facts and allege ‘systemic racism.’ That they refuse to do so on this issue is yet more evidence that they selectively wield such accusations for political ends.”
North Carolina began disarming its black residents in 1840 by enacting legislation “under which free men of color were restricted from carrying firearms and from which white men were exempt,” according to the North Carolina Law Review at UNC School of Law.
Following post-Civil War federal action requiring race neutrality, North Carolina’s Democrat-controlled legislature enacted a permit system to again prevent black residents from owning guns. The North Carolina Law Review reports that “the permit system’s intention was to keep minorities from possessing handguns.”
Now, a century later, “Black applicants [are] experiencing a rejection rate of approximately three times the rate of White applicants” for pistol permits at the Wake County Sheriff’s Office.
The North Carolina Senate voted to repeal the Jim Crow-era pistol permit system that the Democrats created to prevent black people from owning guns.
But the bill will not become law because Gov. Roy Cooper and every Senate Democrat, like those legislators in 1919, voted to maintain the discriminatory gun control system that they would view as racist in any other context.