John Cerullo

As a resident of Durham, and someone whose own life was profoundly affected by gun violence, I am appalled that this bill has reached this level of consideration -- and especially appalled that social conservatives support it. This has nothing to do with individual liberties. No one legally authorized to carry a firearm is prevented from doing so in settings where local authorities have chosen to authorize it, which in our state are plentiful. And it certainly has nothing to do with local control. The fact that conservatives would deploy governmental power to coerce institutions to abandon the alternative policies they have chosen to apply within their own settings is beyond hypocrisy to anyone professing concern with state overreach. And, just as the sponsors of this bill have abandoned any notion of local control, so too have they abandoned any particular concern with public safety. Ask anyone who has ever attended a fraternity party on a weekend how comfortable they will be knowing that, along with all that alcohol,, there are probably a few handguns around.