A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to remove the requirement to renew concealed handgun permits.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑415.11 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑415.11.  Permit to carry concealed handgun; scope of permit.
(a)	Any person who has a concealed handgun permit may carry a concealed handgun unless otherwise specifically prohibited by law. The person shall carry the permit together with valid identification whenever the person is carrying a concealed handgun, shall disclose to any law enforcement officer that the person holds a valid permit and is carrying a concealed handgun when approached or addressed by the officer, and shall display both the permit and the proper identification upon the request of a law enforcement officer.
(b)	The sheriff shall issue a permit to carry a concealed handgun to a person who qualifies for a permit under G.S. 14‑415.12. The permit shall be valid throughout the State until revoked or surrendered.
…
(d)	A person who is issued a permit shall notify the sheriff of the county where the person resides of any change in the person's permanent address within 30 days after the change of address. If a permit is lost or destroyed, the person to whom the permit was issued shall notify the sheriff who issued the permit of the loss or destruction of the permit. A person may obtain a duplicate permit by submitting to the sheriff a notarized statement that the permit was lost or destroyed and paying the required duplicate permit fee."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 14‑415.16 and G.S. 14‑415.16A are repealed.
SECTION 3.  G.S. 14‑415.17 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(d)	A sheriff shall provide any change of permanent address received pursuant to G.S. 14‑415.11(d) to the State Bureau of Investigation for inclusion in the statewide system required by subsection (c) of this section."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 14‑415.18(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	The sheriff of the county where the permit was issued or the sheriff of the county where the person resides may revoke a permit subsequent to a hearing for any of the following reasons:
(1)	Fraud or intentional and material misrepresentation in the obtaining of a permit.
(2)	Misuse of a permit, including lending or giving a permit or a duplicate permit to another person, materially altering a permit, or using a permit with the intent to unlawfully cause harm to a person or property. It shall not be considered misuse of a permit to provide a duplicate of the permit to a vendor for record‑keeping purposes.
(3)	The doing of an act or existence of a condition which would have been grounds for the denial of the permit by the sheriff.
(4)	The violation of any of the terms of this Article.
(5)	Repealed by Session Laws 2013‑369, s. 20, effective October 1, 2013.
(6)	The person is no longer a resident of the State.
A permittee may appeal the revocation of a permit by petitioning a district court judge of the district in which the applicant resides. The determination by the court, on appeal, shall be upon the facts, the law, and the reasonableness of the sheriff's refusal."
SECTION 5.  G.S. 14‑415.19 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑415.19.  Fees.
(a)	The permit fees assessed under this Article are payable to the sheriff. The sheriff shall transmit the proceeds of these fees to the county finance officer to be remitted or credited by the county finance officer in accordance with the provisions of this section. Except as otherwise provided by this section, the permit fees are as follows:

Application fee	$80.00

Duplicate permit fee	$15.00

The county finance officer shall remit forty‑five dollars ($45.00) of each new application fee assessed under this subsection to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety for the costs of State and federal criminal record checks performed in connection with processing applications and for the implementation of the provisions of this Article. The remaining thirty‑five dollars ($35.00) of each application shall be used by the sheriff to pay the costs of administering this Article and for other law enforcement purposes. The county shall expend the restricted funds for these purposes only.
(a1)	The permit fees for a retired sworn law enforcement officer who provides the information required by subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection to the sheriff, in addition to any other information required under this Article, are as follows:

Application fee	$45.00

(1)	A copy of the officer's letter of retirement from either the North Carolina Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or the North Carolina Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System.
(2)	Written documentation from the head of the agency where the person was previously employed indicating that the person was neither involuntarily terminated nor under administrative or criminal investigation within six months of retirement.
The county finance officer shall remit the proceeds of the fees assessed under this subsection to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to cover the cost of performing the State and federal criminal record checks performed in connection with processing applications and for the implementation of the provisions of this Article.
(b)	An additional fee, not to exceed ten dollars ($10.00), shall be collected by the sheriff from an applicant for a permit to pay for the costs of processing the applicant's fingerprints, if fingerprints were required to be taken. This fee shall be retained by the sheriff."
SECTION 6.  Notwithstanding the provisions of this act, any concealed handgun permit issued prior to December 1, 2021, and expiring on or after that date, may be renewed pursuant to the statutory provisions existing prior to this act.
SECTION 7.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2021, and applies to all permits issued or renewed on or after that date.