With about two months left in the North Carolina legislative session, it’s unclear when or if a Constitutional Carry bill that’s already won Senate approval will be voted on in the House, much less if it a vote will be held quickly enough for Republicans to attempt to override the certain veto from Gov. Josh Stein. 

Second Amendment advocates in the state still need to be in constant contact with their representatives to push for a vote on the permitless carry bill, because Democrats are doing their best to rally opposition, with their latest argument an absurd assertion that a shooting at a house party over the weekend shows the dangers of lawful concealed carry. 

Law enforcement responded to reports of people being shot at a residence in Catawba County around 12:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. Twelve victims have been reported, one of whom has been pronounced dead and sixothers are in the local hospital. One is in critical condition in a hospital in Charlotte.

The party involved adults and teenagers, Major Aaron Turk of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office said in a second press release, writing, “the victims range in age from 16 to 58.”

“The investigation indicates more than one shooter was involved in the incident,” Turk said, later noting that “more than 80 shots were fired.”

… Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Sunday: “And yet republicans in our state legislature are trying to make permit-less carry legal in this state. The answer to gun violence being the #1 killer of young people in communities across our state is not to make it easier for young people to buy one.”

Permitless carry wouldn’t change who could buy a gun in North Carolina. It would simply remove the requirement that legal gun owners obtain a permission slip from the state before they exercise their right to bear arms. SB 50 would allow adults 18 and over to both obtain a concealed carry license or, if they can legally possess a firearm, carry one without the need for a carry permit, but since federal law (for the moment, anyway) bars adults younger than 21 from purchasing a handgun at retail young adults would still be unable to acquire a handgun from an FFL. 

SB 50 also wouldn’t change where folks can lawfully carry. Not that it matters in this case. The shooting took place at a home, not a business or in an area designated off-limits to firearms. If the property owner wanted to ban firearms from their residence they were within their rights to do so, but when dozens of people show up for a party it’s going to be impossible to ensure that all of them are unarmed before they come inside. 

Authorities haven’t named any suspects in the shooting at the house party, so we have no idea how old the perpetrators were. It’s also entirely possible, if not likely, that some of the shots that were fired early Sunday morning came from gun owners acting in self-defense, but Clayton’s not waiting for additional information to emerge before trying to turn this incident into a call to action to block SB 50 from receiving a vote in the House. She’s exploiting this tragedy as best she can, in the hopes that voters will ignore the fallacies in her argument. 

Please tell me about all the would-be murderers who didn’t go through with it because they realized they didn’t have a legal permit to carry the murder weapon out in public.

— Kyle Peterson (@KyleP762) June 1, 2025

This shooting isn’t evidence that Republicans should drop their plans for permitless carry. Given what we know at the moment, it’s an argument that lawful gun owners should exercise their right to bear arms in self-defense every chance they get. You never know when you might need to use a gun to protect your life or the lives of others, and SB 50 would simply make it easier for good folks to defend themselves from violent criminals and those with a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life.