(The Center Square) – As the General Assembly resumes its long session next week ahead of the May 8 crossover date, still parked in a rules committee having passed one chamber is a proposal for North Carolina to join more than half the country with constitutional carry.

Freedom to Carry NC, known also as Senate Bill 50, allows permitless carry of a concealed handgun and allows residents to get a concealed carry permit for reciprocity with other states. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., authored the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and it thus far has made it through the Committee on the Judiciary.