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As mass killings rise, how can sheriffs keep guns from the mentally unstable?

UnstableWASHINGTON – Before issuing thousands of permits each year for North Carolinians to buy handguns, sheriffs in Mecklenburg, Union and some other counties across the state have gone through an oft-futile exercise.

Relying on statutory language allowing them to ensure each gun owner is of “good moral character,” they have submitted applicants’ names to large health care facilities seeking to learn whether anyone was suicidal or otherwise mentally unfit to own a pistol.

Under the 1968 federal Gun Control Act, the sheriffs’ offices are entitled to know whether an applicant is disqualified from owning a firearm because he or she has been found by a court to be mentally ill, unable to manage his own affairs or a danger to himself and others.

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Wait-and-see

JACKSON – Northampton County Sheriff Jack Smith said he is not sure how or if his department will be impacted by President Barack Obama’s Executive Action on gun control.

In a nationally broadcast speech Jan. 5, Obama announced that he is requiring all gun sellers to get federal licenses to sell guns and that all purchasers of guns would be required to undergo background checks.

The president’s executive order is designed to close loopholes in existing laws to ensure that criminals and potentially violent people with mental illnesses cannot readily purchase firearms.

Hertford County Sheriff Juan Vaughan also said he is not sure how or if the president’s executive order would impact his department or other law enforcement agencies.

Vaughan said he would like to investigate the new rules before commenting on them.

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Iredell County Sheriff handles influx of gun permit applications

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said his Gunsoffice has seen an increase in applications for conceal and purchase permits.

“So much so that we are going to have to use flex scheduling and some overtime money to get our pistol permits and conceal permits streamlined into fashion,” he said.

Campbell said he believes he’s seeing more applications for two reason.

North Carolina House Bill 562 changed several state gun laws. Among other things, it allowed more people to be eligible for conceal carry permits.

“Along with that the national climate, people who worried about if are they going to be able to possess their firearms,” Campbell said.

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Demand for concealed carry permits grows in North Carolina

GREENSBORO — Look around North Carolina. If you’re with a group of Concealed20 or more people, chances are one of them is carrying a handgun.

Since 1995, when the state gave the general public the right to carry concealed handguns, a half-million people exercised that right.

Much of this surge is among women, who make up 8 percent, or 36,667, of permit holders.

Why people want to carry concealed handguns varies, according to the State Bureau of Investigation. But for most women, carrying a handgun is a matter of personal safety.

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Sheriff and sellers weigh in on gun control

Sellers

With only a year left in his second term as president, President Barack Obama  is looking to toughen up gun laws in the United States through an executive order.

“This is not a plot to take away everybody’s guns,” Obama said in a ceremony in the East Room on Tuesday. “You pass a background check, you purchase a firearm. The problem is, some gun sellers have been operating under a different set of rules.”

Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers are required to conduct background checks on buyers. Through websites, at gun shows and flea markets, though, sellers can sidestep the background checks by not registering as licensed dealers. The new federal guidance from the Obama administration clarified that it applies to anyone “in the business” of selling firearms.

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