AN ACT to clarify the effective date for the law regarding the restoration of firearms rights and the law amending the felony firearms act to allow certain exceptions that are similar to those allowed under federal law, and to clarify that the information obtained pursuant to a criminal record check of a petitioner for the restoration of firearms rights shall be kept confidential but is not required to be kept in a separate confidential file. 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Section 7 of S.L. 2010‑108 reads as rewritten:
"SECTION 7. G.S. 14‑415.4(l) as enacted by Section 1 of this act becomes effective February 1, 2011, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date. Sec. 6 of this act is effective when it becomes law. The remainder of the act becomes effective February 1, 2011. Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this act remain applicable to those prosecutions."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 114‑19.28(c) reads as rewritten:  
"(c)	The State Bureau of Investigation shall provide a copy of the information obtained pursuant to this section to the clerk of superior court, which shall be kept confidential in the court file for the petition for restoration of firearms rights."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 2nd day of March, 2011.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Thom Tillis
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved 1:57 p.m. this 5th day of March, 2011