Under current law, only people 21 and older can carry a concealed weapon, and only after completing an approved firearms safety course and criminal background check.
Under Senate Bill 50, anyone 18 and older who can legally carry a gun could carry it concealed without a permit or safety training.
[Durham County Sheriff Clarence] Birkhead said that would make working in law enforcement more dangerous.
Permitless carry “makes our jobs more difficult – to put a gun in the hand of someone who’s not trained, who’s 18 years of age – so we have to approach every encounter as if there’s a weapon, because we just don’t know,” Birkhead said. “It increases the risk of someone being harmed in that encounter, whether it’s the officer, the deputy, or the citizen. That to me is unacceptable.”
— Lynn Bonner in Gun control advocates in NC work to preserve the permit law for concealed weapons