Protect Religious Meeting Places.

"Protect Religious Meeting Places." Protect. That word does a lot of heavy lifting. It implies security measures... better locks, maybe cameras, emergency plans. Something that makes churchgoers safer.

The bill allows concealed carry permit holders to bring handguns onto school property during religious services held outside school hours. About 300-500 churches in North Carolina hold services on school grounds. Under existing law, those congregations couldn't allow armed parishioners the way churches on private property could. HB 49 closes that gap... not with security infrastructure, but with more guns.

WRAL's headline cut right through it: "NC House passes bill to allow guns at religious services held on school grounds." That's the same bill. Same text. The legislature called it "Protect Religious Meeting Places." The press called it what it was.

HB 49 passed the House 77-43 but died in the Senate. The provisions survived, though... they were folded into SB 41, a broader firearms bill that also repealed North Carolina's pistol purchase permit system. Governor Cooper vetoed SB 41, calling the vote on it hours after children were killed in a school shooting. The legislature overrode him.