Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
3 <br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners <br /> Page 2 <br /> November 11, 1993 <br /> regulate firearms differs in one material respect from that of <br /> the Town of Chapel Hill. Counties, because they are generally <br /> rural in nature, have been given less latitude in regulating <br /> firearms than cities. Furthermore, because of the North Carolina <br /> Constitution's limitation on "local, private and special <br /> legislation, " there probably is not a local-bill easy fix to this <br /> variance in power between counties and cities . The North <br /> Carolina Constitution prohibits the General Assembly from <br /> enacting local, private or special acts or resolutions (i) <br /> relating to health and the abatement of nuisances and (ii) <br /> regulating trade. N.C. Constitution, Art. II, Section 24 ( 1) (a) <br /> and (j ) . Section 24(3) of Article II makes any prohibited local <br /> act void. <br /> Article I, Section 30 of the North Carolina Constitution is <br /> set out verbatim in the March 26, 1990 and September 7, 1993 <br /> Karpinos memoranda. Both of these memoranda contain an analysis <br /> of the limitation that that section of the North Carolina <br /> Constitution places on the regulation of firearms by state and <br /> local governments.' The analysis provided by Mr. Karpinos <br /> concerning the North Carolina constitutional limitations on town <br /> gun regulations applies with equal force to the regulation of <br /> firearms by the State of North Carolina and its political <br /> subdivisions, including counties . Nevertheless, there is room to <br /> regulate within the authority granted to counties by the North <br /> Carolina Legislature. I will discuss below Orange County's <br /> statutory authority to regulate firearms. Before I do that, <br /> however, I want to summarize the laws and regulations now in <br /> place on the subject. <br /> Local Ordinances. <br /> 1. Orange County presently prohibits the display, <br /> carrying, possessing, use and discharge of all firearms on/in all <br /> 'The second amendment to the United States Constitution <br /> provides: "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the <br /> security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear <br /> Arms shall not be infringed. " This U.S. constitutional right is <br /> not an impediment to the regulation of firearms by the State of <br /> North Carolina and its local governments . This is so, at least in <br /> part, because the North Carolina Supreme Court has interpreted <br /> Article I, Section 30 of the North Carolina Constitution as <br /> restricting state and local governments in their firearm regulatory <br /> power to a greater degree than the United States Supreme Court has, <br /> interpreting the Second Amendment to the United States <br /> Constitution, restricted federal, state and local governments . <br />