For those of you out there who are fond of carrying handguns as per the open carry law, but may also be prone to getting chilly, you’re in luck — if the GOP majority in the North Carolina General Assembly has their way, you will no longer be convicted of a felony if your jacket happens to accidentally cover the firearm on your hip.

In a new House bill recently passed and sent to the state Senate, North Carolina legislators have introduced provisions into existing open carry gun laws that allow any U.S. citizen 18 and older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, anywhere that one is allowed to carry a weapon openly. 

House Bill 746, which passed first reading in the Senate on Monday, is an omnibus gun bill that, among other things, loosens restrictions around concealed carry permits and handguns in North Carolina. 

While much of the bill simply restates existing legislation around firearm regulations in North Carolina, there have been a number of clarifications in existing language added to the bill. More importantly, the bill proposes generous loosening of restrictions regarding who, where and when people can carry handguns in North Carolina. 

If, like me, you’re in favor of stricter gun regulations rather than looser ones, it may be a very small comfort to know that HB 746 doesn’t change anything about the laws in place that prohibit open carry of a handgun on college campuses, nor the laws that prohibit anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry a handgun, unless they’re part of law enforcement. 

Furthermore, the punishments mandated for anyone who carries a handgun or other explosives in violation of the existing laws remain the same under the new proposed legislation, which could be a comfort or a worry, depending on how harshly one believes in punishing such violations of the law. 

According to North Carolina General Statute 116-143.1, NC State University’s campus is defined as an educational property that is also an institute of higher learning. Despite the fact that NC State is a state-funded, public university, being an institution of higher learning exempts us from being classified as public property. Nonetheless, the campus location is surrounded by state-mandated public property where open carry of a legally owned handgun by a U.S. citizen is legal. 

For example, if you’ve ever taken a walk through Pullen Park, a public park that borders the eastern side of NC State, it’s more than likely that you’ve seen at least one person with a holstered gun on their hip. I know I certainly have — more than once, and more than one person. Under HB 746, if passed, rather than being aware of whom to avoid while on a leisurely stroll through Pullen Park, I’m never going to know who has a gun concealed under their jacket, in their bag or in a holster hidden anywhere else on their body. 

Equally worrying, or perhaps even more so, is the fact that the passage of HB 746 would not only lower the legal age to carry a handgun, whether openly or concealed, from 21 to 18, but it would also eradicate the requirement to go through the permit-acquiring process, which includes a course on how to safely handle a firearm, as well as target training and a general background check.

Basically, any U.S. citizen 18 years or older, could own and carry a gun, both openly and concealed, without a permit or proper, trained knowledge as to how to handle said gun. 

If I wasn’t already terrified at the mere thought of guns, I’m definitely terrified at the thought of having some untrained kid — who, by the way can’t even drink or legally buy a gun — carrying around a firearm in a public place. 

Rep. Chris Millis (R-Pender), the one of the leading sponsors of the bill, says he is, “…on the side of saving lives,” and that, “…the way you save lives is you allow law-abiding citizens to defend themselves.” 

Unless I’m hallucinating every single moral lesson I’ve learned from experience throughout my life, I thought the agreed upon protocol was to not fight fire with fire. Arming “law-abiding citizens” in an effort to protect themselves and others from armed non-law-abiding citizens sounds exactly like the textbook definition of fighting fire with fire. Literally.