BY REP. TODD CARVER

Members of the N.C. House of Representatives voted to approve House Bill 193 in May. This legislation has garnered some media attention so I wanted to take a few moments to clarify what this bill will and will not allow.

This bill was one I was proud to be a primary sponsor on, along with Rep. Jeff McNeely and two other House members with law enforcement backgrounds, Reps. Reese Pyrtle and Charles Miller.

HB 193 would allow private schools to designate someone with a concealed handgun permit to carry concealed firearm on their property. I support this legislation because it allows people to make a choice about the safety and security of their own property. Most private schools do not have a designated School Resource Officer. They are not provided one by a local law enforcement agency or they don’t have the resources to provide one for themselves. I believe we can agree that all schools should be a place of safety and secure learning for our children, no matter who runs the institution.

HB 193 would require the person on the private school property carrying a concealed handgun to have written permission on their person from the head of the school allowing them to carry. This would prevent a random person from carrying concealed on the school’s property. Only the person or persons designated by the leadership to be responsible for the school’s security would be permitted to do so.

Currently there is nothing in our law that allows for this to take place. If the private schools cannot contract with a local law enforcement agency, there are very few viable options.

There is nothing in the bill which requires teachers to carry concealed in their classrooms or anywhere else on the campus of a private a school. There is nothing in this legislation requiring private schools to establish an armed security team for their school. There is the flexibility to give private schools the ability to protect their students, their employees and their property from someone who would seek to do them harm.

Under this law the ability to decide is given to the person designated as the leader of the school, a person those parents should trust to make decisions.

I fundamentally believe the more decisions we have being made by local people — as close as possible to where the action is taking place — the better off we will be. Raleigh should only be making those decisions which have an impact, directly on the entire state or where there has been an inability of the local governments to make a fair and consistent decision for a broad swath of the population. I have said it before: Few decisions get better when made in Raleigh.

I support HB 193 because it allows local people to make a local decision which directly impacts them and their child’s school. Parents ultimately have the power to vote with their feet. If leadership is not being responsive to their concerns, we are fortunate to live in a community with a variety of educational options. Safety should not be the deciding factor. All our children deserve the opportunity to attend a safe and well protected school.

Rep. Todd Carver represents the 95th District in the N.C. House. Email him at todd.carver@ncleg.gov.