Giffords Applauds Governor Roy Cooper for Announcing a Package of Critical Gun Safety Legislation
March 14, 2018 — Today, Giffords , the gun safety organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly, applauded North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper for announcing his support of critical gun safety proposals. Governor Cooper spoke out in support of policies like background checks and extreme risk protective orders that would make North Carolina families and communities safer from gun violence.
“The epidemic of gun violence continues to impact the lives of North Carolinians,” said Nico Bocour, State Legislative Director of Giffords. “Governor Cooper recognizes that more can be done and has shown the courage and leadership North Carolina needs right now to prevent future gun tragedies. His proposal contains a number of life-saving measures that can solve this crisis, including policies that would help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. These proposals have the broad support of the public, and we urge the North Carolina legislature to take up this legislation.”
Governor Cooper’s op-ed today calls for:
- Establishing an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO): An ERPO would establish a judicial process to acquire an order of protection so that an individual in crisis would be temporarily prohibited from firearm possession.
- Requiring Universal Background Checks: There is no gap more glaring in our gun laws than the federal background checks law, which allows felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill to purchase firearms at gun shows and online without undergoing a background check. North Carolina currently has a permit-based background check system in place for all handgun sales. Expanding that system to apply to long guns, including assault weapons, will help keep guns out of dangerous hands.
- Raising the Minimum Age for sales of assault weapons to 21: It should not be easier to buy an assault weapon than a handgun.
- Banning Bump Stocks: Bump stocks and other similar devices are marketed to shooters seeking to convert their weapons to simulate the rapid continuous fire of an automatic firearm while using a semi-automatic gun. North Carolina should ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and possession of bump stocks that allow shooters to a rate far beyond the standard rate for a semi-automatic gun.
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