North Carolina law provides that no person may purchase or receive a handgun without a permit to purchase a handgun or a concealed handgun permit.¹ Once obtained, a permit to purchase a handgun, issued by the sheriff of the county in which the purchaser resides, is valid for up to five years and may be used to purchase one handgun.² To obtain a permit, an applicant must be a resident of the county in which he or she is applying, unless the purpose of the permit is for collecting, in which case a sheriff can issue a permit to a nonresident.³ North Carolina law also provides that a permit will be denied to any applicant who falls into certain categories of prohibited persons.⁴ See the section on Firearm Prohibitions for a list of these categories.

The sheriff must verify, before the issuance of a permit to purchase, that it is not a violation of state or federal law for the applicant to purchase, transfer, receive, or possess a handgun. The sheriff must determine the criminal and background history of any applicant by:

• Accessing computerized criminal history records as maintained by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

• Conducting a national criminal history records check;

• Conducting a check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS); and

• Conducting a criminal history check through the Administrative Office of the Courts.⁵

In order to approve a purchase permit, the sheriff must also be “fully satisfied” that the applicant is of good moral character,⁶ although in making this determination, under a 2015 law, sheriffs may only consider an applicant’s conduct or criminal history within the five years preceding the permit application.⁷ The applicant must satisfy the sheriff that he or she desires the handgun for protection, target shooting, collecting or hunting.⁸ The sheriff must inform the applicant whether he or she is granting or denying a license within 14 days of the application.⁹

The sheriff of each county must keep a record of all permits to purchase a handgun, including the name, date, place of residence, and age of each person to whom a permit is issued.¹⁰

New residents of North Carolina do not need a license to bring their handguns into the state.

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1. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-402.[↩]
2. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-403.[↩]
3. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404(a).[↩]
4. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404.[↩]
5. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404(a)(1).[↩]
6. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404(a)(2).[↩]
7. Id.[↩]
8. ((N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404(a)(3).[↩]
9. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-404(f).[↩]
10. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-405.[↩]