At the end of April the NC state legislature rescinded the law that required residents of North Carolina to get a permit from the local sheriff before they could buy a crossbow. (This is the same process required to buy a handgun in NC). Senate bill 406 repealed that part of the permit requirement. Now guys like me can buy a crossbow without all the red tape and fees associated with the permit process.
Oddly enough, the inclusion of crossbows in the old law was not the work of anti-hunting or anti-weapon fanatics, but a lobbying group of North Carolina bowhunters, who object to crossbows as unsporting and (reading their webpage) rather sinister.
Paul Thompson
Senate bill 406 of 2011:
http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/Bills/Senate/PDF/S406v3.pdf
A webpage by the North Carolina Bowhunters Assoc.:
http://www.ncbowhunter.com/cb_fact_fiction.html
Oddly enough, the inclusion of crossbows in the old law was not the work of anti-hunting or anti-weapon fanatics, but a lobbying group of North Carolina bowhunters, who object to crossbows as unsporting and (reading their webpage) rather sinister.
Paul Thompson
Senate bill 406 of 2011:
http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/Bills/Senate/PDF/S406v3.pdf
A webpage by the North Carolina Bowhunters Assoc.:
http://www.ncbowhunter.com/cb_fact_fiction.html