When you think of the South, you tend to think “pro-gun.” There’s a reason for that one.

However, that status isn’t as secure these days as it once was. In North Carolina, for example, there’s a push going behind a bill that seeks to limit gun use.

Democrats in the N.C. House of Representatives proposed the Gun Violence Prevention Act to the General Assembly on Feb. 14.

The purpose of House Bill 86 is to set some limits on gun use. These limits address the waiting period before firearm delivery or possession, safe storage, reporting on lost or stolen firearms and firearm liability insurance.

HB 86 passed its first reading in the General Assembly session on Monday, and the Judiciary Committee will take further action to work on the bill. House Bill 61, which also involves gun laws, passed its first reading on Feb. 14 and will go to the Judiciary Committee, as well.

Gary Pearce, retired political consultant and blogger, said he thinks the proposed bill is very important because it can protect people from unnecessary violence.

“Kids are getting murdered in schools. Adults are getting murdered where they work,” Pearce said. “… It is much more of a national emergency than it is an imaginary crisis.”

Kids are more likely to be killed in a car accident than they are to be shot in school, yet where’s Pearce screaming about that “crisis?”

I swear, I’m getting sick and tired of anti-gunners acting like there’s some epidemic of school shootings that needs to be addressed because none of our kids are going to make it out of school alive if we don’t or something. It’s a pile of male bovine excrement.

While I agree that we should do what we can to protect our children, gun control measures tend to focus on the wrong things. For one, they focus on the tool and not the pathology that leads to school shootings.

For another, they focus on the geography of the school and forget that children also face risks at home from intruders.

Gun control laws make it far more difficult for parents to protect their kids. Further, they make it more difficult for older kids to protect themselves when mom and dad are away.

This is a simple fact.

Right now, these bills have passed the first stage of the process to become law. There’s still a long, long way to go, so I urge all North Carolinians to step up and contact their legislators and make their feelings known. There’s still plenty of time to block this bill, but the Republican majority in the state isn’t what it once was, and it’s important that even Democrats in the legislature feel the heat that comes with supporting gun control.

Kill these bills now, while there’s still time, and make it so that lawmakers in the state recognize that gun control is still a third rail for politicians.

Do that enough, and you won’t have to worry nearly as much about who gets elected. For the most part, anyway.