Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, will be leading a seminar for 2A activists on Thursday, November 13th. It will train you on how to mobilize the base, how to use direct action to hold public officials accountable, and how to expose and defeat polices that are anti-rights. This seminar will be online and is FREE.
Details and how to register are below:
Defending the Second Amendment Free Strategic Webinar 11/13/25
Every time the political winds shift, one truth remains: enemies of the Second Amendment do not rest. Whether you’re shocked or unsurprised by the November 2025 election results, you can count on one outcome—relentless pressure to weaken your rights.That ends where you get organized.
On November 13, 2025, join a free, first-of-its-kind webinar, “Defending the Second Amendment,” led by nationally recognized gun rights strategist and GRNC co-founder Paul Valone.
This is not theory. This is applied Constitutionalism.
You will learn how to:
Deploy grassroots mobilization that puts real pressure on politicians
Use direct action in both legislative and election operations
Expose and defeat policies designed to choke off your rights
Hold officials accountable and well-behaved from your town council to the statehouse
The government is not going to limit itself. That job falls to informed, disciplined citizens who know how to fight smart, hit strategically, and never cede ground.
If you’re tired of watching your rights negotiated away, this is your line in the sand.
Attend this free training and learn how YOU can shape policy and decision-making in your local, county, and state government.
The NRA-ILA is now headed by what I consider their third string quarterback. First, Wayne and company forced Chris Cox out for supposed disloyalty. Then his replacement Jason Ouimet left when he saw the writing on the wall. Now Randy Kozuch, an almost 30-year veteran of the NRA, was appointed as Executive Director of ILA by the Board of Directors on Monday He had been the interim head prior to Monday.
Yesterday, the NRA-ILA posted a release that claimed credit for getting North Carolina’s pistol purchase permit repealed and blasting other 2A groups for taking credit for it.
However, some other 2A groups in the state have instead continued to focus on seeking credit for the legislative victory. At least one group has gone so far as to try claiming exclusive responsibility for the passage and veto override of SB41.
Not only do these laughable claims dismiss over a decade of legislative repeal efforts by NRA members, gun owners, and other 2A groups, but they also create an unnecessary distraction. This is a time when Second Amendment expansion opportunities in North Carolina are possible, including NRA’s push for constitutional carry. We would hope that all pro-gun groups share that same enthusiasm to collectively fight for pro-gun legislation in North Carolina.
Now I don’t know if this was the work of Randy Kozuch as it reads more like something that Marion Hammer would put out. I do know that someone royally screwed up.
You don’t tug on superman’s cape You don’t spit into the wind You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger And you don’t mess around with Paul Valone of GRNC
It is bad enough to take credit for another organization’s hard work. The NRA has done that time and again. However, it goes beyond the pale when you then dump on an all-volunteer, highly effective, state-level gun rights organization for having the temerity to claim credit for their actual accomplishments.
As anyone who knows Paul Valone would expect, he is not taking this lying down. He issued a point by point response last night.
Gun Rights Supporters: The failing NRA, in a desperate bid for relevance, recently made a veiled accusation against GRNC, claiming “…some other 2A groups in the state have instead continued to focus on seeking credit for the legislative victory. At least one group has gone so far as to try claiming exclusive responsibility for the passage and veto override of SB41.” Below are NRA claims, followed by the truth.
Myth: The NRA claims GRNC was the first group to claim credit for Senate Bill 41.
Truth: GRNC was not the one who first claimed credit, it was Fred Edgecomb, a past president of the NRA-affiliated NC Rifle & Pistol Assoc., who was heard to claim credit at a recent IDPA match. We merely responded by setting the record straight.
Myth: The NRA-ILA alert claimed that GRNC “dismiss[ed] over a decade of legislative repeal efforts by NRA members, gun owners, and other 2A groups.”
Truth: The first purchase permit repeal was negotiated by GRNC, Sen. Buck Newton, and the Republican-led NC Senate in 2013 and was included as part of HB 937, an omnibus bill which contained, among other things, restaurant carry. Because the Senate considerably strengthened the weak bill first passed by the NC House, it had to return to the House for a concurrence vote. Unfortunately, NRA-endorsed Governor Pat McCrory threatened to veto the bill if it contained the purchase permit repeal, causing the repeal to be stripped out in conference committee.
Next, in 2021, GRNC worked with Rep. Jay Adams to alter his bill, HB 398, by substituting language for a full purchase permit repeal. We also worked closely with then-NC Sheriffs Association President Dave Mahoney to get NCSA to endorse the repeal and got the bill passed by both chambers before Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it.
This year, GRNC worked closely with Sens. Danny Britt, Warren Daniel, and Jim Perry to ensure that the SB 41 not only cleared both chambers, but did so without contaminating amendments. For the override vote, we hammered thousands of robocalls and automated text messages into the districts of Democrats who had voted for the bill.
Meanwhile, bill sponsors and other legislators I have asked reported no contact from the NRA lobbyist, DJ Spiker. The NRA was so utterly out of the loop that, at one point, it issued an alert which wrongly described the contents of a gun bill that had been changed in a previous committee meeting. In fact, in videos GRNC made this year of committee hearings on gun bills, you will see only GRNC testifying to the committees, not NRA and not NCRPA.
Finally, GRNC worked for nearly two decades to insert into the public consciousness the phrase “our Jim Crow-era purchase permit law” – a strategy we worked out after reading about the origins of the law in Dave Kopel’s book, ”The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?”
Myth: That the NRA is “push[ing] for constitutional carry.”
Truth: North Carolina’s first permitless carry bill (then called “Vermont carry”) was introduced by Sen. Hugh Webster in 1997 as SB 810 at the behest of GRNC and GOA. We actually went as far as filing a discharge petition when Democrat Marc Basnight refused the bill a hearing. At around this time, we heard reports from gun rights groups in other states that NRA lobbyists were actively sabotaging permitless carry bills. This year, we are working closely with bill sponsor Rep. Keith Kidwell on HB 189, “NC Constitutional Carry Act.” We are unaware of any effort by the NRA on the bill. Frankly, it would be nice if the NRA did something on the bill, since the May 4 crossover deadline is fast approaching.
In closing, it’s bad enough that the NRA, consumed by its inner strife and reportedly declining membership, has been AWOL from the past two sessions of the General Assembly. Worse, however, is when the organization, facing legal challenges due to alleged corruption, siphons off resources from the group that is actually doing the heavy lifting.
Paul Valone is the honey badger of the gun rights community in North Carolina. While the NRA may still consider itself the 800 lb gorilla, “honey badger don’t care“.
The North Carolina House of Representatives passed the omnibus SB41 yesterday by a vote of 70 aye, 44 nay, and 6 excused absences. Four of the excused were Republicans. The enrolled bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. It is anticipated that Cooper will veto the bill in keeping with the wishes of his anti-gun masters. To override, all Republicans in the Senate must vote for the override and all House Republicans plus one House Democrat. An absent Democrat or two on the day of the override vote will work as well.
The bill, as noted earlier, repeals the Jim Crow-inspired pistol purchase permit, allows churches with attached private schools to allow carry when students are not present, and launches a statewide safe storage initiative for firearms that cannot advocate for gun control.
Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, issued this statement on the passage of the bill:
“In passing Senate Bill 41, today was a great victory for the Second Amendment. GRNC wishes to thank Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, as well as sponsors and “main movers” of the bill including Sens. Danny Britt; Warren Daniel; and Jim Perry; and Reps. Destin Hall; Jay Adams; Hugh Blackwell; Allen Chesser; Kyle Hall; Bobby Hanig; Kelly Hastings; Neal Jackson; Keith Kidwell; Jeff, McNeely; Ben Moss; Mark Pless; Jason Saine; Carson Smith; plus Democrats who stood courageously: Marvin Lucas, Michael Wray, and Shelly Willingham, and finally the many others whose co-sponsorship and votes who made the victory possible. GRNC particularly thanks our members and supporters, whose thousands of emails and phone calls made this victory inevitable. We are confident that we will over-ride the inevitable veto by anti-freedom Governor Roy Cooper. Very soon, we will release more details of the vicious floor fight waged by Democrats to stop the bill, and the well-managed efforts Republican leadership used to stop it.”
There has been no whiny response as of yet from Everytown, Moms Demand Action, Giffords, NCGV, or the rest of the gun control industry. They are still reveling in the virtually meaningless executive actions by President Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper.
Politicians need reminders on who “brung them to the dance” lest they start believing they did it all on their own. A sparkling personality and a impressive résumé can only take you so far. Effective outside help should always be appreciated.
Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, realizes this. He just issued two open letters: one to Speaker Tim Moore of the NC House and one to Sen. Phil Berger, President Pro Tem of the NC Senate. The only difference in the letters is that the Republicans received a supermajority in the State Senate while falling one short in the House.
The letters (see an example below) remind Moore and Berger of both the efforts and the results from the independent expenditures made by the GRNC-PVF and the Judicial Fairness Project. 34 races were targeted and 27 wins recorded or nearly an 80% win rate.
They are then told of the legislative priorities for GRNC in the next session. These include permitless carry, getting rid of the pistol purchase permit, eliminating the “church carry loophole”, and protecting shooting on private property. Vetoes by Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) negated the wins in the last session which sought to eliminate the pistol purchase permit and allowing churches with schools to permit carry during non-school hours. Neither veto was overridden. With the supermajority in the Senate and the near supermajority in the House, chances are that a veto could be overridden this time. The letter concludes by saying Valone is confident that the Republicans will advance the rights of Second Amendment supporters.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed SB 43 – Protect Religious Meeting Places with bipartisan majorities. The bill would have allowed concealed carry at churches with attached private schools outside of school and extracurricular hours. In other words, a church could have their own security team made up of church members during their church services. We have seen too many times that churches have become the targets of evil people.
Despite all the safeguards in place, Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) again vetoed a bill that would protected churches. He said in his veto statement, “For the safety of students and teachers, North Carolina should keep guns off school grounds.” According to WRAL, this was Cooper’s 55th veto since first taking office. It is important to note here again that the bill only impacted churches with private schools and that the definition of school hours was even more restrictive than the bill he vetoed in the last session of the General Assembly.
The question now becomes will the Democrats who voted for the bill decide that it is more important to stand with the governor and party or with church people. In 2020, enough Democrats thought party was more important than church people and sustained Cooper’s veto of H652. The picture above is of Riverside Independent Baptist Church and Riverside Christian Academy. It is in the district of Rep. Charles Graham (D-Robeson) who voted in favor of the bill.
Rev. Mark Creech, Executive Director of the Christian Action League, did not hold back in his criticism of the veto. He said, in part:
“The legislation the Governor vetoed provided a simple carve-out in the law for churches associated with private Christian schools. This is the second time he has vetoed such legislation. His expressed concerns for rejecting the measure, however, were respected and addressed in this bill. His veto is, therefore, simply unreasonable.
“It is quite cost-prohibitive for many of the churches associated with private Christian schools to afford to hire off-duty police officers. Without this legislation, these churches are vulnerable to some crazed soul who might walk in and want to start shooting. The threat is real and urgent!
“The Governor’s veto makes me wonder how long it’s been since he’s been to church. Surely he understands there are teachers and students in our Sunday School classes. Other churches are allowed to protect their teachers and students in Sunday Schools, but not churches connected with schools. It makes no sense.
“Is there some personal animus by the Governor toward private Christian education? Or is he operating entirely as a liberal ideologue against it? Because he has now made it abundantly clear, if a church chooses to provide a Christian education to its community, it will not be allowed to defend itself against persons with murderous intent. That will undoubtedly work to quash any growth of church-sponsored schools.
He went on to add that if a mass shooting happened at one of these churches the blood of the slain would be on Cooper’s hand.
“Given that North Carolina concealed handgun permit-holders have been safely carrying in many churches since 1995, there is no rational reason for Governor Cooper’s veto of SB 43. It is disappointing but by no means surprising that Governor Cooper puts politics ahead of keeping religious meeting places safe from increasingly common violent attacks.
“GRNC is calling upon legislators of both parties to over-ride the veto. If the effort fails and a church killing takes place in North Carolina as it has elsewhere, we will hold responsible both Gov. Cooper and those who support his veto.”
While calling the Democrats who voted for the bill as well as the many who just so happened to be absent the day of the vote could have impact, I suggest a different approach.
I think the churches impacted that are in the districts of these Democrats should organize a vigil or demonstration outside the home of each and every one of these legislators. I would make sure that there were a lot of elderly and young children in the crowd. They should stand their silently holding signs saying something like “Are we not worthy of protection?” I would make sure every media outlet in the region was alerted and on scene. The pastor should have a concise statement ready to give the press as well. Remember that if there is one thing politicians hate, it is being embarrassed in the media. The time for being meek and subservient is over.
I am a guest on Paul Valone’s Guns, Politics, and Freedom radio show this afternoon. The episode will broadcast on Wilmington Big Talker Radio at 5pm this afternoon.
The show was pre-recorded and you can also listen to the full show on YouTube which I’ve embedded below.
Paul, who is president of GRNC, made the point that North Carolina is ground zero in the fight for gun rights. Everything you have seen in Virginia could happen here.
Lawsuits by Eric Holder and Democrats over redistricting. Check.
Money from Michael Bloomberg. Check.
Growth in sanctuary counties. A good thing but still check.
Paul made the point to me in Las Vegas that Virginia had to resort to the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement. They had lost their other options. We in North Carolina are not at that point. Yet.
Everyone who attends a county sanctuary meeting needs to be registered to vote. Even more importantly, they need to recruit 10 likeminded friends and make sure they are registered to vote. Then all 11 need to vote for pro-gun candidates in both the March primaries and November general election.
I was a guest yesterday on Episode 24 of the Guns, Freedom, and Politics radio show with Paul Valone. We discussed the failures of law enforcement at Marjory Stoneman Douglas H.S., President Trump’s gun control proposals, the media narrative of events, and what would have worked.
Paul suggested everyone call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 to let him know where you stand on his proposals regarding bump fire stocks, raising the age to purchase a long arm, and universal background checks. The key thing regarding bump fire stocks is not the stocks themselves but rather if it is interpreted to include anything that might accelerate the rate of fire such as a trigger job, Geissele or Timney triggers, or a different buffer weight.
Paul has made the recording available as a YouTube video. You may want to subscribe to his page so you don’t miss future shows.
I spent part of Saturday morning working the Grass Roots North Carolina booth at the Asheville Gun and Knife Show. Paul Valone, President of GRNC, was also helping out at the booth and we had a chance to chat. He told me we needed to put pressure on Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) over Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s moves to outlaw bump fire stocks. Paul said it was only a first step for Feinstein and having read her bill I agree. The bill itself contains what I consider a Trojan Horse as it would outlaw anything that accelerated a semi-automatic rifle.
The alert that Paul alluded to in our conversation was released late this afternoon. It asks gun rights supporters to call and email Senators Burr and Tillis as well as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding Feinstein’s ban bill.
The alert is below:
Do you want Washington deciding what should or shouldn’t be your next gun
accessory?
While
our nation continues
to mourn the senseless tragedy in Las Vegas, lawmakers in Washington are
rushing to fix (i.e. exploit) an issue they barely understand. Senator
Dianne Feinstein (D-California) is reportedly proposing legislation that
will eliminate all after-market devices which increase the firing rate
of
legal guns. Of course, this would ban the now infamous “bump stocks”.
But, it would also make illegal many other accessories, such as
systems that enthusiasts use to make semi-automatic versions of belt-fed
machine guns.
Even more troubling, this proposal would NOT grandfather
any of these devices. This would potentially have the chilling effect
of making tens of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens, criminals
overnight — just for owning the “wrong” accessory.
If
this dangerous proposal were to become law, nobody knows how far the
government
would go to make sure millions of gun owners have only the “politically
correct” accessories. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has even said that
she “certainly hopes” this is will be a slippery slope to more gun
control. This is so much more than a Second Amendment issue — this is
an
attack on our right to own private property, a freedom enshrined in the
Fifth Amendment.
IMMEDIATE ACTION
REQUIRED!
Call AND email North Carolina
Senators Tillis and Burr, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office: Let them know that as a well-informed voting citizen you refuse to stand idly by while
Congress debates how to strip millions of law-abiding Americans of their private property rights.
Contact
the NRA: Call them (at
800-672-3888) and email them
and
tell them to grow a spine. Make it clear you will not hesitate to resign
your membership unless they ramp up the fight to protect our
fundamental
freedoms.
Donate to GRNC: As an all-volunteer grassroots
organization, we work hard to protect our American liberties. It takes a
lot of
resources to fight this rising tide of hysteria and disinformation, and
every little bit helps to keep the torch of liberty burning. Please click here or go to
https://www.grnc.org/join-grnc/contribute.
CONTACT INFO
Senator
Richard Burr: email link,
202-224-3154 Senator Thom Tillis: email link, 202-224-6342
I understand that
California Senator Dianne Feinstein is currently proposing legislation
that
would ban all devices that increase the firing rate of legally owned
firearms. This would have the chilling effect of turning tens of
thousands of
otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals. It would also strip them
of their private property rights, a right enshrined in the Fifth
Amendment.
Have the courage to stand up to Senator Feinstein and anyone else in
Congress who believes it is their place to decide for millions of
Americans the
“correct” type of accessories they can own.
Please
advise me of your position on this proposal. I will be monitoring your
actions via
Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.
We got back from our multi-family vacation to the beach on Saturday night. A good time was had by all. I will try to get back into the swing of things with a series of posts on thing I missed reporting on last week.
Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, is now be hosting a terrestrial radio show on WFBT, FM 106.7, out of Wilmington, NC. The show entitled “Guns, Politics, & Freedom” will air on Sundays at 5pm Eastern. The aim of the show is to give gun rights advocates new ammunition in our fight for these rights. Four episodes have broadcast and archived shows can be found here.
Paul has more details in his release about it below:
Drawing on 23 years as a leader in the gun rights movement, F. Paul Valone is hosting a new show entitled “Guns, Politics & Freedom” on Sundays at 5:00 PM Eastern as part of the “Sunday Night Political Power Block” on conservative talk station WFBT, 106.7 (Wilmington, NC), which streams live nationally at www.WilmingtonBigTalker.com
Recent shows have included interviews with self-defense legal expert Andrew Branca (“The Law of Self-Defense”) and constitutional law professor Greg Wallace (“The Second Amendment in the courts: What comes after Heller?”). Upcoming shows will feature internationally renowned defensive firearm guru John Farnam and widely published concealed handgun researcher Dr. John R. Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center.
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