N.C. has little regulation of guns in plain sight, but some advocates want even less

Gun-rights advocates are divided about open-carry laws that would allow individuals to openly display weapons, and their division may be most prevalent in North Carolina, where little regulation exists for plain-sight weapons. "A national pro-gun Internet group, opencarry.org, ranks the state among the friendliest to those who wear a weapon for all the world to see," Josh Shaffer of the Charlotte Observer reports. "Unlike concealed weapons, plain-sight guns are almost totally unregulated in North Carolina, where only a misdemeanor 'going armed to the terror of the public' speaks to the issue."

Before 1995 it was legal in North Carolina to openly carry a gun almost anywhere, but the state concealed weapons law restricted carrying guns, concealed or otherwise, in schools and government buildings. Private businesses also have the right to post signs prohibiting guns on their premises. "For some gun rights advocates, carrying an unconcealed gun is an opportunity to vigorously exercise their Second Amendment rights," Shaffer writes, adding "There is nervousness about open carry, even among lifelong gun folks."

Paul Valone, president of nonprofit firearms group Grass Roots North Carolina, even has his own doubts about open-carry laws, Shaffer reports. Valone advocates removing many of the restrictions attached to North Carolina's concealed carry law but notes if somebody were robbing a convenience store in which he were buying a soda, he would rather they not know he was carrying a gun. But still the right to openly carry a weapon is among the most important to some. "The Constitution doesn't say I have the right to keep and bear arms if I keep them concealed," Eric Shuford, an instructor at the Wake County gun range, told Shaffer. "It says I have the right to keep and bear arms." (Read more)