Richard Moore, a Democratic candidate for governor, has sent out a mailer about Beverly Perdue's record on gun legislation, reports Ben Niolet.
What the ad says: "Perdue chose the gun industry over our kids … in the wake of increased gun homicides among teenagers in North Carolina, a reasonable law to get parents to keep their guns locked up passed the NC House and went to the NC Senate. A similar law in Florida had already led to a decrease in accidental gun deaths. That’s when Bev Perdue chose the gun lobby over safer homes and schools."
"Law enforcement said Perdue “gut the bill.” Newspapers said Perdue “failed her constituents and all North Carolinians miserably” and her “strings seemed to be pulled by the NRA.”
‘"Not just selling out to the gun lobby, Bev Perdue has let us down before: Perdue was 1 of only 2 Democrats to vote against a law to make it easier to investigate hate groups like the KKK, a law supported by the entire black legislative caucus. Is Bev Perdue a Democrat we can trust?
"Instead of keeping guns out of the hands of kids, Bev Perdue gave the gun lobby a hand.’
What the ad looks like: The glossy mailer features a photograph of a smiling Perdue and a revolver sticking out of a book bag. The mailer also makes liberal use of quotations from newspaper stories and editorials.
The background: In 1993, the state legislature considered a bill that would toughen penalties for bringing a gun to school and require parents to keep guns under lock and key. The bill came after shootings in Raleigh, including the killings of a high school student and a city sanitation employee. A similar law in Florida cut accidental firearms deaths in minors, according to an advocacy group that supported the 1993 bill.
The National Rifle Association opposed the locked-gun provision. Perdue, then a state senator, consulted with NRA lobbyists and offered an amendment to replace the locked storage requirement with a provision that made it a crime for gun owners to have “reckless possession of firearms.”
The law that ultimately passed made it a crime for a gun owner to allow a child to get hold of a gun and use it unlawfully. Perdue voted for the law.
Editorials in The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and The News & Record of Greensboro supported the locked storage provision and criticized Perdue’s amendment, as did law enforcement officials such as then-Orange County District Attorney Carl Fox.
Perdue said at the time that she took the safe-storage provision out of the bill to improve the rest of the bill’s chances of becoming law.
The text about the hate groups refers to a vote in 1987 Perdue cast against a bill that made it easier for the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate hate groups. The bill had overwhelming support. Perdue has said she does not remember the vote and thinks, on the basis of the other votes she has taken, that it must have been a mistake.
Is the ad accurate? Yes.
