North Carolina Did Surf a Red Wave in 22
By
John Petrolino
In what has been described as an upset by many, the 2022 midterm elections have come and gone. What we’ve been left with is actually not “that” bad. If you’re from a progressive pinko safehaven like New Jersey, “not that bad” is par for course for winning. In reality, the 2nd Amendment kind of won on election day. No, we did not see the massive red wave sweep across the country, but we did see liberty, freedom, and the Second Amendment more than hold their own. North Carolina is one such area that not only did “not that bad”, but actually dominated when it came back to reclaiming positions of power for those that support freedom.
What was up for grabs? The open US Senate spot has been claimed by Republican Ted Budd, by over more than 3 points. The 14 slots that were up for a vote in the House of Representatives, half went to the Democrats, and half went to the GOP. Looking at all of the GOP wins, those members won handedly, as opposed to the Democrat victors, who did not completely dominate in all races, with a few closer calls.
Where the most impressive results in The Old North State can be found would be the state level races.
In this last election there were two North Carolina Supreme Court vacancies to fill, and four Appellate Court judges that needed to be selected as well. All of the judicial elections went to GOP candidates.
All 50 State Senator seats were up for grabs, as well as all 120 State House of Representatives were to be voted on. From the Senate race, the GOP has managed to grab a supermajority and the House was just shy one seat to one themselves.
These wins, while not a foregone conclusion that North Carolina will be looking at firearm freedoms oozing from every crevice, it’s pretty likely they’ll find some liberty in the session to follow. North Carolina in practice is fairly 2A friendly, especially considering that some of the State’s fellow East Coast brethren are some of the biggest anti-freedom cesspools in the Union. There are a couple of things that hang over the heads of the citizens of North Carolina and some of that’s going to be up for consideration.
A recent statement from the President of Grassroots North Carolina, Paul Valone, pointed out his gratitude, as well as the flexibility that there’ll be concerning the restrictions on the Second Amendment in the state.
“I am deeply grateful to the many volunteers who made our victories possible. As an all-volunteer organization, GRNC is able to get more ‘bang for the buck’ when doing independent expenditures for and against candidates, allowing us to better shape a political environment conducive to gun rights.
“Now GRNC is calling upon Republican leadership to acknowledge the gains given them by gun voters by passing an aggressive Second Amendment legislative agenda. In particular, we are interested in joining the 25 states which have successfully adopted permitless or ‘constitutional carry’ laws, as well as repealing our Jim Crow era pistol purchase permit law and closing the ‘church loophole’ which prohibits lawful North Carolinians from protecting their families in churches which sponsor schools. GRNC’s legislative action team will be highly active in pursuing those objectives.”
Valone, an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment, activist, and author, and I bellied up to a bar in Dallas in October, and chatted about the problems he and his group were facing. Valone had a lot to say about what was happening in his state. We discussed some victories they’ve seen, as well as some shenanigans that are going on. Seeing this wide sweep on the state level does not mean that Valone’s job is going to be easy going forward, but the wins certainly are going to help Grass Roots North Carolina achieve their goals.
Some North Carolina citizens have been embroiled in a conflict concerning the delay in issuance of permits to carry, with some applicants waiting over six months (or much more). Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, according to remarks from Valone, has been behind the delays on these permits. With Valone noting other counties seem to not be having similar problems. In one report Valone would not elaborate further, but said that future litigation might be on the way.
Should pushes to make North Carolina a permitless carry state succeed, the matter of slow rolling the issuance of permits will become semi-moot. Many citizens would get relief within the state, depending on how any statute is written. Naturally, most jurisdictions that become permitless, or gain Constitutional carry, do continue to issue permits or licenses for the purposes of reciprocity with other states. By extension, the Jim Crow era pistol purchase permit law would probably find itself repealed if the carry permit law does change in that manner. We’ll have to see though.
On all accounts, the situation in North Carolina could not have gone much better. Yes, it would have been great to see the party of liberty completely run the table, but what North Carolinians ended up with isn’t half bad. It’s going to be exciting to watch their next legislative session to see what the GOP does with this sizable power grab.
North Carolina Did Surf a Red Wave in 22...