When Commissioner Leroy Pittman cast the lone pro-gun vote following a debate on the issue by the Union County, North Carolina Board of Commissioners, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, decided to nominate him for the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of Month Award for February.
“Hats off to Commissioner Leroy Pittman for standing up for the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms,” said Snyder. “We applaud his announced determination to resist attempts to undermine a new state law permitting law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms.”
As reported last month in POINT BLANK, the Union County Board of Commissioners passed its ordinance banning the carrying of concealed weapons on county property.
In a four-to-one vote in early December, 1995, with Pittman the only one voting against the ordinance, the board passed a measure which bans concealed weapons at the library, Department of Social Services, and the old post office.
Snyder said that “decent people need to be able to defend themselves, their loved ones and their property against the violent criminal elements in our society. This is a real deterrent to criminal behavior, and Pittman deserves the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for standing up for this principle.”
Pittman said “I’dont see that it’s necessary that we have this ordinance. I can’t support this ordinance once again. I think there has been some knee-jerk reaction to this. I don’t see what this is going to do.”
Pittman has opposed the ordinance since it was initiated by Commissioner Paul Standridge in November of last year.
Union County is one of the last local governing bodies in the State to pass an ordinance banning concealed weapons. Marshville, Monroe, Waxhaw, Indian Trail and Stallings already have ordinances in place. Wingate voted recently to study the ordinances of other towns, and to take up the matter again later.
On December 1, 1995, North Carolina became the 24th State to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.
“Every State has had a decrease in crime when they passed this law,” Pittman said. “Someone is less likely to attack you in a dark parking lot if they don’t know if you are carrying a gun or not.”
Pittman, a candidate for the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina’s Eighth Congressional
District, told POINT BLANK that “there has never been a time of greater need to defend the Second Amendment than right now. With Bill Clinton in the White House, the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from the thugs who roam our streets has been placed in imminent danger.”
Born May 2, 1943 in Greenville, North Carolina, Pittman is Past Chairman of the Union County Board of Commissioners, Chairman of the Union County Fire Commission, Past Chairman of the Unfunded Mandates Committee of the Carolinas Counties Coalition, Director of the Carolinas Partnership, a Member of the North Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee, and a Member of the Heritage Foundation.
He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micrographics Support, Inc. of Monroe, North Carolina, a Director of the Carolinas Regional Hospital, and holds memberships in the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Eastman Kodak Advisory Council Board, and the Vietman Veterans Association. Pittman received a B.S. from the University of Maryland, and studied at the Graduate School of Banking of the University of South Carolina, and Bank Operations Management at the University of Wisconsin. Married to the former Patricia Anne Dollar, the couple have five children.
Pittman told POINT BLANK “I have always been an unwavering supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. I will never bend to the liberal anti-gun special interests who help criminals by taking away guns of law-abiding citizens.
“As a Congressman, I will vote to repeal the notorious assault weapons ban, the Brady Bill, and all other federal laws which clearly violate the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
“The liberals continue to trample on the Second Amendment and the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms.
“It’s just another attempt by the liberals to try and rewrite the Constitution.”