N.C. gun sales increase after change in law

Gun sales in North Carolina increased following the repeal of a state law requiring a purchase permit for buying a handgun in March 2023.

In March, the legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and repealed a law requiring a purchase permit from the county sheriff to buy a handgun. A background check is still required.

In April, there were more than 83,000 FBI background checks across the state. There is no repository that tracks gun sales, but background checks serve as a good proxy.

According to the FBI’s background database, there have been only three months with more background checks in North Carolina than April 2023. Those were June 2020, the highest month on record, and January and March 2021.

Gun sales spiked in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic and racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd. By 2022, sales had dipped back to historic levels, but again increased last year. Sales for 2023 were still lower than both 2020 and 2021.

Rob Maungyoo, who owns Clayton Guns in Clayton (near Raleigh), said he supported the law change and saw an increase in traffic after it was made.

“It was an archaic law. I mean, they should have gotten rid of it a long time ago. It’s an old Jim Crow law saying who and who can’t own a handgun,” Maungyoo said.

“The whole idea was that it was the sheriff who knew his constituents — he knew everybody in the county. Nowadays there’s a million people in Johnston County, or however many people in Johnston County. So, he can’t know a tenth of his constituents.”

The N.C. Sheriff’s Association says it is not aware of any adverse consequences as a result of that law being repealed.