On Monday, Judge Donald Stevens made the decision to uphold the concealed weapons ban at the North Carolina State Fair, according to the News & Observer. This decision will be in effect for this year’s State Fair, which opens on Thursday.
Grass Roots North Carolina, a nonprofit and all-volunteer organization that advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment, demanded that the Department of Agriculture obey House Bill 937 and allow persons with concealed handgun permits to carry guns at the North Carolina State Fair, according to Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots NC.
The bill states that persons with a concealed handgun permit may “carry a handgun into an assembly where an admission fee is charged.”
However, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence was one of the groups that advocated for the ban of guns at the State Fair. The group was happy about the decision to ban firearms because the fair will now remain a family-friendly event, according to Becky Ceartas, the president of NCGV.
“The decision makes sense because you want to keep the fair safe, but at the same time if someone had a permit, I can see why they would be upset,” said Jerry Coleman, a sophomore in industrial engineering.
The NCGV is concerned with protecting families from accidental discharge of guns, the possibility of people sitting down and leaving their guns behind and the potential of weapons falling into the hands of children, Ceartas said.
However, according to Valone, “The kind of guns carried by concealed gun permit holders do not discharge when dropped, not that they even would because the kind of holsters used to carry these guns keep them secured.”
Grass Roots NC members also cite protecting their families as a reason to advocate for the allowance of guns.
“I can see it as a violation of their Second Amendment rights which are already heavily regulated, but I can see the reason for people not wanting handguns being carried by pedestrians as well,” said Adam Fairbanks, a sophomore in biomedical engineering.
According to Valone, people with concealed weapons permits are “overwhelmingly responsible people with extensive training and certifications.”
“These people are not a hazard, they are a resource,” Valone said.
In cases of mob violence and extreme unruly crowd behavior, trained people carrying guns with concealed weapons permits can be a major asset, Valone said.
“I wouldn’t predict any problems with people who have concealed handgun permits,” said Keith Miller, NC State Rifle Team Coach, prior to the decision. “They are an exceedingly law-abiding and careful group of people. But the way I originally interpreted the legislature surrounding the issue was that concealed weapons permit holders would not be allowed to bring their hand guns or any gun in.”
According to Ceartas, many people who signed the NCGV petition and were aware of the situation said they wouldn’t attend the fair at all if the gun ban was not enforced.
Valone said people would act exactly the same unless they had extreme anti-gun preferences.
“These people carry their concealed guns next to you in the grocery store responsibly, and you don’t even know it,” Valone said. “At the fair they would be protecting themselves against things like mob violence, stabbings and robberies, all of which have happened at fairs in the past across the country. You have a greater chance of contracting food poisoning than you do being a victim of a misfire from a concealed weapons carrier.”
On North Carolina college and university campuses, concealed weapons permit holders are allowed to carry handguns in their locked cars and locked glove compartments. They are now also permitted to carry handguns in bars and restaurants in North Carolina.
