Roy Cooper’s pitch to “make things cost less” lands with a thud in North Carolina, where families endured the nation’s highest healthcare premiums on his watch. While the former governor now promises relief on the campaign trail, the record shows premiums climbing faster under his administration than in almost any other state, squeezing household budgets already stretched by inflation and taxes. For gun owners, the sting is sharper: when medical bills devour paychecks, there’s less left for range time, training classes, or the next defensive firearm purchase that could mean the difference between life and death.

The deeper irony is that Cooper’s healthcare failures mirror the same top-down logic that fuels anti-Second Amendment policies. When government expands its grip on one sector of the economy, costs rise, choices shrink, and individual responsibility gets crowded out—exactly the pattern gun-control advocates want to repeat with firearms. North Carolinians who watched premiums skyrocket while access lagged now face a candidate who offers more of the same centralized “solutions” rather than market-driven reforms that could free up resources for personal protection and preparedness.

For the 2A community, this isn’t just a healthcare story; it’s a warning about the broader worldview on the ballot. Voters who value the right to keep and bear arms should recognize that candidates who can’t—or won’t—rein in runaway costs in one critical area are unlikely to champion the economic freedom that underpins every other liberty, including the ability to afford the tools of self-defense.