US Constitution
• Second Amendment
• Fourteenth Amendment (Equal-Protection clause)
US Code (USC)
• National Firearms Act (NFA 1934)
• Gun Control Act (GCA 1968)
• Civil Rights Act (CRA 1968)
• Firearms Owner's Protection Act (FOPA 1986)
• Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady 1993)
• Omnibus Crime Control Act (1994)
Common Law
US Court Interpretations & Case Law
US Attorney General Opinions
Executive-Branch Regulations (BATFE, FBI, TSA, &c.)
Uniformity & Pre-Emption — Not for federal firearms regulations
NC Constitution — A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; and, as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they shall not be maintained, and the military shall be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. Nothing herein shall justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons, or prevent the General Assembly from enacting penal statutes against that practice.
NC General Statues (NCGS) — Criminal Code is NCGS Ch.14
State-Wide Uniformity & Pre-Emption
• Standardizes State-wide firearms laws and preserves non-nuicance status of guns
• State reserves sole right to pursue firearms lawsuits and regulate firearms
• Local authorities may not single-out firearms activities via zoning &c.
• Local authorities may
- Prohibit guns in places allowed to them by State and Federal law like government buildings, parks, &c (but may not prohibit storing guns in vehicles in those parking lots)
- Prohibit “exposure”
- Treat air/spring guns as firearms
- Prohibit posession outside the home and transportation during a state of emergency
Misc Firearms Crimes
• Hunting on Sundays (exc. Fort Bragg with permit)
• Exposing (local option), brandishing, or going armed to the terror of the people
• Many crimes are punished more severity if a firearm is involved (e.g. rape & robbery)
• Teaching somebody how to use or make a gun for use in a civil disturbance
• Drilling with others for use in a civil disturbance
Range Protection
• Protects sport-shooting ranges from noise-nuicance lawsuits if active before 1994
• Change in activity opens window of vulnerability for one year
• Grandfathered for ordinances unless activity changes
• Has no effect on operational negligence or recklessness
From/To Dealers — (FFLs)
• Transfers documented by federal form 4473
• For sales of multiple handguns within a five-day period, FFL notifies ATF
Handguns
• 21 or older
• Only inside NC
• Pistol-purchase permit or CCH permit
• One handgun per permit, and number per day may be limited
- Not required for antiques,
• No registration or license to posess (exc, Durham County)
Long Guns (Rifles & Shotguns)
• 18 or older
• Only in-person outside NC
• NICS check
Antiques & Replicas — Exempt from purchase restrictions
• Black-powder muzzle-loaders and replicas, or
• Which use pre-1898 cartridges no longer available commercially
Private Sales, Gifts, Transfers, Inheritances
• To a resident of another State, only via FFL in the purchaser's state
• Age and eligibility rules apply .
• Inheritances exempt from interstate restrictions
• US & NC laws apply
• Handgun seller, donor, or executor keeps the CCH permit details or purchase permit
• Cannot knowingly sell to prohibited persons
Borrowing & Renting
• All other laws complied with
• Allowed for lawful sporting purposes throughout the United States
Ammo
• Rifle: 18 yo
• Handgun: 21 yo (retailers), 18 yo (otherwise)
Unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person is:
Convicted — Convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year
• Includes misdemeanors with a potential term of imprisonment in excess of two years
• Whether or not sentence was imposed
Indicted for Felony — A person under indictment or information for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
Fugitive — Fugitive of justice (e.g. a subject of an active felony or misdemeanor warrant)
Addict / User — An unlawful user and/or an addict of any controlled substance (e.g. convicted for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year, or with multiple arrests for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past five years with the most recent arrest occurring within the past year, or a person found through a drug test to use a controlled substance unlawfully, provided the test was administered within the past year)
Mental — Adjudicated mentally defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution or incompetent to handle own affairs, including dispositions to criminal charges pertaining to found not guilty by reason of insanity or found incompetent to stand trial.
Illegal Alien — An alien illegally/unlawfully in the US or a non-immigrant who does not qualify for the exceptions under Title 18 U.S.C. Section 922(y) (e.g. not have possession of a valid hunting license.
Dishonorable Discharge — A person dishonorably discharged from the US Armed Forces.
Renounced Citizenship — A person who has renounced his/her United States citizenship.
Protective Order — The subject of a protective order
• Issued after a hearing in which the respondent had notice that restrains them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such partner.
• Does not include ex parte orders.
Misdemeanor Domestic Violence — Convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime which includes the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon and
• Defendant was the spouse, former spouse, parent, guardian of the victim
• By a person with whom the victim shares a child in common
• By a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited in the past with the victim as a spouse, parent, guardian or similarly situated to a spouse, parent or guardian of the victim.
Restoration of Rights — Some conviction/indictment prohibition can be waived by US SecTreas or through a pardon, expungement, restoration of rights, or setting aside of a conviction. Protective orders require court action.
Under-21 — Illegal to:
• Sell a handgun to
• Sell handgun ammo to (retailer)
Under-18 — Illegal to:
• Sell a long gun to
• Posess or carry a handgun, except:
- Under adult supervision (while present) for recreation or instruction
- Emancipated minor for personal defense in their home
- Carrying written permission of parent/guardian while hunting or trapping rurally
• Give, offer to sell, or in any way transfer a handgun or pistol ammo to a minor, except
- Temporary posession
- Transfer to an adult custodian, and juvenile takes posession only temporarily or lawfully
- Legacy transfer to adult custodian and legally used by juvenile
• Encourage or aid a juvenile to take a firearm onto school property
• Leave a gun in a condition that can be fired, and can be accessed by a minor (if a minor lives there, too) is a misdemeanor if the minor gets posession without permission of parent/ guardian and gets into mischief with it
- Does not apply if that results from an unlawful entry
- Retail outlets must post a sign saying Unlawful to store or leave a firearm that can be discharged in a manner that a reasonable person should know is accessible to a minor
Under-12 — Illegal for parent, guardian, or person acting in loco parentis to allow an under-12 to posess or use any gun, loaded or unloaded, except under their direct supervision
• Includes air & BB guns in seventeen counties (not Moore): Anson, Caldwell, Caswell, Chowan, Cleveland, Cumberland, Durham, Forsyth, Gaston, Harnett, Haywood, Mecklenburg, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union, Vance
Dealer (FFL) — Sales, gunsmith, pawnbroker, auctioneer
Class-III Dealer — GCA Title-II firearms: full-auto &c
Manufacturer
Importer
Collector (C&R) — Curios & Relics
• Make & model listed by ATF
• Basically, up to WWII
• Allows interstate buying, selling, and shipping with other C&R or FFL
• Not for business
Long Guns
• Out-of-state, you can ship only to an FFL
• FFL can return same or replacement gun to sender
• May ship to yourself in c/o another for hunting out-of-state (unopened)
• May use USPS
Handguns
• May not use USPS
• Out-of-state, you can ship only FFL-to-FFL
• FFL can return same or replacement gun to sender
• USPS regs include spring/air guns that can be used as weapons
Curios & Relics Lic. (C&R)
• May ship to and receive from FFL or Collector out-of-state
Antiques
• May use USPS
Shipper
• Need written notification to shipper for guns & ammo packages
• External markings prohibited
• No USPS for handguns (FFL-FFL & antiques only)
Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP)
• Rifles & ammo shipped directly to your home
Export
• No export permit needed for personal, temporary export
• Three guns and 1000 rounds
• Accompanied or not, but not mailed
Fort Bragg
• Concealed allowed only outside contonment area, non-stop, on public roads
• Otherwise must be unloaded with ammo separated and not “concealed”
• Recommend locked in trunk or tool box (not in glove compartment) or in locked case
Common or Contract Carrier — Deliver the unloaded firearm into custody of the pilot, captain, conductor, or operator for the duration of the trip.
AMTRAK & Greyhound — Firearms & ammo are forbidden in carry-on or checked baggage.
Airlines
• Check for specific airline policy and local laws
• Attempt to carry board is a “strict liability” violation
• Carried in checked baggage only, unloaded
• Declare at check-in
• Bag should be locked before check-in and remain locked
• No baggage marking is allowed
• Handguns in separate, locked, hard-sided case inside luggage
• Ammo in packaging specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition
- TSA okay with ammo in same locked case with gun, BUT
- Airline may require ammo be separated from gun
• Sec. 926A protection
- Travelling to and from where the gun is allowed
- Travel to airport with the gun locked away
- Baggage goes directly from car to check-in desk in a locked case
Automobile / RV
• Sec.926A – A defense to State or local laws which would prohibit the passage of persons with firearms in interstate travel.
- Valid from and to any place where you may lawfully possess and transport
- Unloaded and in the trunk.
- Without a trunk, unloaded and in a locked container (not glove compartment or console)
• RV not necessarily considered an abode (State laws)
• Concealed prohibited without CCH permit
- Obscured and within reach (i.e. in the passenger compartment) is concealed
- “Out in plain view” (but degree of threat will be interpreted by the officer) or
- Unloaded and locked in a container, locked in trunk, or locked in a gun rack, not in glove compartment
NC is an Open-Carry State, however...
• May be interpreted as “brandishing” or “going armed to the terror of the people”
• May be prohibited during a state of emergency or riot
• “Exposure” may also be prohibited by local law (e.g. Charlotte)
• Posession may also be prohibited in an area you are transiting
• A property owner may forbid open-carry, and may invoke the trespass law
Open-Carry is Okay
• With landowner’s permission
• In rural areas without “exposure” laws
Concealed Weapons Prohibited, except for:
• Handguns by CCH permit holders under allowable circumstances (below)
• In own residence or own place of business
• Handguns with written permission of employer in his place of business
Requirements to Carry a Handgun Concealed (CCH)
• CCH Permit on your person
• Valid ID on your person
• No drinking and no alcohol or controlled substances in blood, except by prescription
• When you are approached or addressed by any law enforcement officer, you must declare that you have a CCH permit and that you are armed
• Present both CCH Permit and valid ID at the request of any officer
CCH Permit Requirements
• 21 years of age
• US citzen
• NC resident 30 days
• Not physically or mentally incapable of safely handling a handgun
• Not prohibited by State or federal law to receive, posess, or own a firearm
• Not convicted of a violent misdemeanor
• Not convicted of DUI for three years
CCH Permit Administrivia
• Apply at your local sheriff’s office
- Application ($80, non-refundable)
- Criminal background check
- Approved NC concealed-carry course certificate
- Fingerprinting ($10 fee)
- Release form for personal records check
• Valid for 5 years
• Must apply for renewal 30-days prior to expiration
- Renewal application ($75 fee)
- Notarized statement that you’’re still qualified
- Fingerprinting
• Sheriff has 90 days to approve or deny
- May appeal to local district court whose decision is final
• Sheriff may issue a temporary, non-renewable, 90-day permit for an emergency threat
- May be revoked at any time without hearing
• Notify Sheriff of
- Change of address within 30 days
- Loss or destruction of permit
ALL Firearms
• Public or private school buildings, busses, campus grounds, recreational areas, athletic fields or property owned, used, or operated by a pubic or private educational institution
- Except for instructional purposes
- Except if taken or found and turned in
• Courthouses and grounds and areas in private buildings where a court is in session
• Federal office buildings and office areas within private buildings, incl. adjacent corridors
- Public entrances must be posted
• Post Offices
• Private property posted against carrying a firearm
• State & local gov’t facilities, parks, and recreational areas posted against carrying a firearm
• NC Capitol building, Governor’s Mansion, Wester Governor’s Residence & grounds
• Assemblies where admission is charged
- Doesn’t apply to owner/lessee, participants/employees with permission, security guards
• Places where alcoholic beverages are sold and consumed
• Parades, funeral processions, picket lines, and demonstrations at private health-care clinics or on State owned or regulated property
- Except with police/sheriff permit
- Except long guns in a pickup-truck rack at a holiday parade or funeral procession
• National Parks
- Guns must be unloaded, cased, broken down (if possible) and out of sight.
- Ranger or gate attendant must be notified upon entering
• National Forests okay, but must obey State laws
• Off one’s own premesis during a state of emergency or in the immediate vicinity of a riot
• Exceptions: highway rest stops and State-owned hunting & fishing preserves
Concealed Carry Handgun
• In addition to the above:
• Law-enforcement facilities (State, county, municipality, company, campus)
• NC Department of Correction facilities
• Offices where federal and State employees work
• Financial Institutions (banks, S&Ls, credit unions)
• Anywhere with a conspicuous sign: NO CONCEALED HANDGUNS or statement made by person in charge
Ammo
• Armor-piercing handgun ammo is illegal to make or sell
• Teflon-coated bullets (NC)
Firearms — US licensing does not pre-empt NC prohibitions
• Machine gun posession, transfer, manufacture.conversion, importation
- Declared war souvenirs okay
- Exemptions only for business security, &c.
• Frame, receiver, or conversion parts for machine guns
• Short rifles (16” bbl, 26” LOA)
• Short shotguns (18” bbl, 26” LOA)
• Suppressors, silencers, mufflers
• Guns undetectable by airport-security machines
• Guns with serial numbers modified or gone
• Bore >1/2” (exc. sporting shotgun)
• If convicted of a firearms offense, a confiscated gun will not be returned to you
Firearms are Dangerous & Deadly Weapons
• A “perfect self-defense” MAY justify a shooting and avoid criminal penalty (see below)
• An “imperfect self-defense” may lead to serious criminal penalties (see below)
• All shootings will involve a criminal homicide investigation and, probably, a grand jury indictment for felonious assault or homicide. Vindication may come only after a Superior Court jury trial.
Proportional Response
• You have the right to defend yourself and escalate in order to terminate an attack, but
• Taking a human life is NOT justified for anything but defense against an imminent and grave attack
Deadly force is NOT justified in these cases:
• Simple assault, but may transition into a deadly threat by circumstances:
- Deadly weapon or martial skill used
- Size, strength, age, fierceness, or numbers disparency
- Past threats or violent reputation
- Repeated blows to vitals or on the helpess, choking, violent language, threats to kill, &c.
• Theft of property
• Preventing escape of attacker
• Responding to violent language
• As a victim of past or fear of future violence, only an imminent threat
• Trespass
• If life can be saved by escape
Defense of Others
• Deadly force is allowed only if the other is legally justified in using deadly force themselves
• Imperfect knowledge may put intervenor in legal jeopardy
Duty to Retreat Exists*, except when
• On own premises: home or business
• Deadly threat or sexual assault is imminent
• Escape is not possible without jeopardy to life
• No legal requirement to give warning (but may be advisable for witness testimony)
Defense of Habitation
• May use deadly force to prevent forced entry or terminate entry if
- Deadly force is necessary
- Facts and circumstances indicate intent to commit a felony or grave attack
• Once intruder is inside, the same rules apply (since ‘94)
• No requirement to retreat in one’s own premesis, home or business
• Applies to other occupied buildings and places on your property
• Does NOT apply to a guest who starts a non-life-threatening dispute or refuses to leave (that’s trespass)
• Does NOT apply to burglars who surrender or try to escape
No such thing as citizen’s arrest — Lawful detainment only, without deadly force, eye-witness
Vulnerability to civil lawsuits* — Independent of criminal charges
Perfect Self-Defense — all four criteria must be met:
• You believe there is an imminent threat of
- Death
- Great bodily harm (murderous of felonious assault)
- Sexual assault
• Facts and circumstances would lead a person of ordinary firmness to agree
- Officer, prosecutor, jury
- Reasonable appearances apply
• You are not an instigator or aggressor who voluntary provoked, entered, or continued the conflict
• Force used was not excessive
Imperfect Self-Defense — may result in jeopardy for:
• Pointing a gun, loaded or unloaded, at someone is assault
• Intentionally shooting into an occupied building or vehicle is a felony
• Intentionally shooting at someone with intent to kill is felonious assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill
• Intentionally shooting at someone with intent to kill and wounding is felonious assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious bodily injury
• Accidental discharge that kills someone, due to reckless handling, is a felony, involuntary manslaughter
• Intentionally shooting and killing someone without mallice while acting under legally recognized provocation is a felony, voluntary manslaughter
• Intentionally shooting and killing someone with mallice but without premeditation or deliberation is a felony, 2nd-degree murder
• Intentionally shooting and killing someone with premeditation and deliberation is a felony, 1st-degree murder
*Note: Part of the move for “Castle Doctrine” reform
