Carolina Criminal Defense & DUI Lawyer UpdatesA North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit generally allows you to carry a concealed handgun into a business that is open to the public unless the owner has prohibited firearms through a posted notice or a verbal instruction. That was the rule before the United States Supreme Court decided Wolford v. Lopez on June 25, 2026, and it remains the rule today.
The Court struck down a Hawaii statute, not a North Carolina one. It did not require restaurants, stores, hotels, or shopping centers to allow firearms. Instead, the decision reaffirmed a constitutional principle that matters nationwide. A state cannot treat firearms as presumptively prohibited on private property open to the public simply because the property is privately owned. The property owner still decides.
Headlines described the ruling as the Court striking down a Hawaii gun law. While accurate, that description does not answer the question most North Carolina readers are asking. Can a licensed permit holder lawfully carry a concealed handgun into a business that is open to the public? The answer depends less on Hawaii than on how the Second Amendment, North Carolina statutes, private property rights, and ordinary trespass law fit together.