The Durham County, NC, Sheriff’s Office has confirmed with evidence via its Facebook page that records kept as part of the county’s handgun registry have been destroyed after threats of litigation.
The records had been maintained since 1935 as part of a Jim Crow-era law intended to discourage the exercise of Second Amendment rights by minorities.
GRNC President, Paul Valone
Durham repealed the registration law in June, but was unwilling to destroy associated records claiming they may have “historical value.” In September, Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC) President Paul Valone and Director of Legal Affairs Ed Green sent a certified letter to Durham County Clerk of Superior Court Archie Smith advising him that retaining registration records under Durham’s repealed gun registration law was a clear violation of that preemption statute which forbids local governments from regulating firearms.
Noting that GRNC and its sister organization, Rights Watch International, had successfully sued North Carolina over its state of emergency gun ban and Winston-Salem over its illegal parks ban, and that GRNC had recruited plaintiffs with standing in a potential handgun registry case, the letter finished by saying:
“Given that state experts have already determined that the handgun registrations have no historic or archival value; given that no agent of Durham County or the City of Durham can legally utilize the registrations for any reason; given that, absent a statute authorizing their retention, the registrations are a violation of the privacy of Durham County residents; and given the liability to Durham County of the Clerk’s Office continuing to regulate the registrations in clear violation of state law – there is no reasonable course of action but to destroy these registrations. To remove any possible barrier to this end, GRNC will pay the fee of a commercial service provider to remove the illegal registrations from the Clerk of Court’s office, shred them onsite, and recycle the remains.”
However, the county shredded the records without offered assistance.
