Senate committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes.

No longer names the act the “Religious Assembly Security and Protection Act of 2023.” 

Adds the following content to the bill.

Part II.

Repeals the following statutes concerning pistol permits: GS 14-402 (forbidding sale of pistols without permit), GS 14-403 (concerning issuance of a permit to purchase a pistol), GS 14-404 (concerning permit denials) and GS 14-405 (concerning confidentiality and record keeping requirements). Repeals GS 14-407.1 (concerning permits for the purchase of blank cartridge pistols). Repeals GS 14-315(b1)(1) (setting out the defense for selling a weapon to a minor that the minor produced a permit under now repealed GS 14-402). Repeals GS 122C-54(d2) (giving a sheriff access to a record of involuntary commitment for mental health treatment or for substance abuse treatment that is required to be reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) by GS 14-409.43, for the purposes of conducting background checks under now repealed GS 14-404).

Provides that prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this section are not abated or affected by this section, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this section remain applicable to those prosecutions. 

Part III.

Requires the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to collaborate with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Wildlife Resources Commission (Commission), to launch a two-year statewide firearm safe storage awareness initiative to educate the public about the importance of the safe storage of firearms and to facilitate the distribution of gun locks, which must include the development of a website and toolkit and include an outreach process. 

Requires DPS to develop a website to provide information to the public about six specified issues related to the safe storage of firearms, including access to a toolkit of information that local communities may use to launch firearm safe storage initiatives at the local level. Specifies what is to be included in the toolkit, including the distribution of free or discounted gun locks. Requires the development of the website and toolkit by July 1, 2024.

Requires DPS, upon development of the website and toolkit, to implement an outreach process for disseminating the information and toolkit to the public and to local communities, and requires providing technical assistance to local communities to assist them in using the toolkit to launch local initiatives.

Allows contracting with a third-party with relevant expertise related to public health and injury prevention to launch the firearm safe storage awareness initiative. 

Prohibits the firearm safe storage awareness initiative and any state funds used to launch and maintain the initiative, from being used to advocate, promote, or lobby for the creation of new, or the revision of existing, laws regulating firearms; limits use to the purposes set out in the act and to explaining and promoting existing laws regulating firearms and best practices for firearm storage and safety.

Requires DPS, in collaboration with DHHS and the Commission, to report to the specified NCGA committee on progress in launching the initiative by September 1, 2024.

Effective July 1, 2023. 

Makes conforming technical changes in Part I and amends the act's titles.