May 24, 2013
A second group of county commissioners here in the East has gone on record as endorsing gun owners' rights.
The Pitt County Board of Commissioners considered two resolutions dealing with gun laws Monday morning.
The first asks the North Carolina General Assembly not to enforce any federal law that steps on the Second Amendment. A second resolution asks state legislators to change the law that allows gun ownership information to be public record.
The first passed 6-3 with commissioners Tom Johnson, Melvin McLawhorn and Beth Ward opposed. The second, dealing with gun privacy, passed 7-2 with Johnson and McLawhorn opposed.
Both resolutions were introduced by Commissioner Glen Webb.
You can read the resolutions by clicking on the documents at the top of this news story.
Last month, Beaufort County commissioners passed a similar resolution on the Second Amendment.
On the heels of a Beaufort County Commissioners resolution to stop any federal law or executive order that infringes on 2nd amendment gun rights, a commissioner in Pitt County is working to do the same.
Glen Webb says he will ask fellow commissioners to join him in passing a resolution that would ask the North Carolina General Assembly not to enforce any federal law that steps on the 2nd amendment.
WITN's Clayton Bauman spoke to Webb Monday after Webb made a Facebook post this weekend about his plans. Webb also wants to pass a 2nd resolution to protect personal information of registered gun owners from being released. He feels it gives criminals a map to find guns and puts people in danger- including law enforcement.
"It's brought law enforcement officers under threat by prisoners that have access to the internet and the paper as well, and they are receiving threats as well especially in our jails," said Webb.
Commissioner Melvin McLawhorn looked over a copy of Webb's plans and says he won't be supporting them.
"I think somehow this is a direct slap in the face against our President Barack Obama. What he's trying to do, as I see it, is to protect all Americans," said McLawhorn.
Webb says that nothing proposed federally so far is outlandish, but says it can become a slippery slope. Webb hopes to make his proposals in a meeting next month.
