AN ACT to allow detention officers employed by the sheriff to carry firearms at the county courthouse.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑269.4 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑269.4.  Weapons on State property and in courthouses.
It shall be unlawful for any person to possess, or carry, whether openly or concealed, any deadly weapon, not used solely for instructional or officially sanctioned ceremonial purposes in the State Capitol Building, the Executive Mansion, the Western Residence of the Governor, or on the grounds of any of these buildings, and in any building housing any court of the General Court of Justice. If a court is housed in a building containing nonpublic uses in addition to the court, then this prohibition shall apply only to that portion of the building used for court purposes while the building is being used for court purposes.
This section shall not apply to:
(1)	Repealed by S.L. 1997‑238, s. 3.
(1a)	A person exempted by the provisions of G.S. 14‑269(b),
(2)	through (4) Repealed by S.L. 1997‑238, s. 3. 
(4a)	Any person in a building housing a court of the General Court of Justice in possession of a weapon for evidentiary purposes, to deliver it to a law‑enforcement agency, or for purposes of registration,
(4b)	Firearms in a courthouse, carried by detention officers employed by and authorized by the sheriff to carry firearms.
(5)	State‑owned rest areas, rest stops along the highways, and State‑owned hunting and fishing reservations.
Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 24th day of July, 2007.

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2007