History of Concealed Carry in North Carolina, Part 3: The 1879 Ban

As noted yesterday, in its 1875 Constitutional Amendments, North Carolina gave its General Assembly the ability to enact “penal statutes against” the practice of carrying concealed weapons. Not surprisingly, having given themselves the Constitutional green light, it was not long before the North Carolina General Assembly did just that.

In on July 1, 1879 it became a misdemeanor to carry a concealed weapon off of one’s own property in North Carolina.

Public Law of the State of North Carolina, Session 1879, Chapter 127 — An Act to Make the Carrying of Concealed Weapons a Misdemeanor — was ratified March 5, 1879.

As you can see in the picture of the law below, in addition to any pistol, other banned weapons were any “bowie-knife, dirk, dagger, slung-shot, loaded cane, brass, iron, or metallic knuckles, or other deadly weapon of like kind.” It truly was a ban on concealed WEAPONS, not concealed firearms.

A second notable aspect of the law to me is Section 4 which maintains: “Any person being off his premises and having upon his person any deadly weapon described in section one, such possession shall be prima facie evidence of the concealment thereof.”

As I will discuss in my next post, this law was subsequently challenged by L.R. Speller and upheld by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in 1882, but with an interesting finding with respect to open carry.