East Lake Norman News

Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell) said she was disappointed with Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of legislation that would have allowed churches with private schools to permit handguns on their property during non-school hours. 

Sawyer posted her point-of-view to her Facebook page on July 3, where she also said, "Personally, I have been horrified by church shootings." 

North Carolina allows houses of worship without a private school on site to decide if they will allow handguns, but the law, Sawyer said, classifies any church with a private school as a "school," thus not allowing them the ability to approve handguns on property. 

In vetoing the legislation, Cooper said in a statement on July 2 that it would threaten students' and staffs' safety by allowing guns on school campuses. 

"When I sit in a church with my family, I want them to be safe. I reviewed this legislation and it only applied to churches that have private schools attached to them," Sawyer said in the press release. "I was actually shocked that a church on one corner could protect its members, but a church across the street could not. That does not make sense and it was not the intent of the original legislation."