There's a lot of corruption in North Carolina government but any Southern state that still elects Democrats is going to be portrayed as "progressive" by the liberal media, no matter what. The states gun laws don't look too onerous on paper, but there are some problems. Citizens have to apply to their county sheriff for their CCW permit, and its a pretty expensive item. Afterward, the citizen has no control over how long it takes that county sheriff to get his paperwork in to the state bureau of investigation, who must check the citizen out before the permit will be approved. If and when the citizen passes the SBI check, the state doesn't send a CCW permit directly to the citizen, it sends an ok to issue a permit back to the county sheriff, where, once again, the citizen has no control over how long it takes to get that permit back to him/her. As a result, in this age of instantaneous electronic communication, the CCW procedure in North Carolina can literally take up to four months. Of course, there may be a way to cut through the red tape. I've heard that soon after you apply for your CCW permit or a renewal of it in North Carolina, you get a letter from the sheriffs re-election committee requesting a contribution.