Thats statute means if it's not in your possession or immediate control. Unless you're going to leave it "laying around" where you won't be supervising, then it doesn't have to be locked up just because a kid is present, only if a child can have access to it and you're not around.
The reason for the law is people leave guns in the night stand or under the matress or in the closet unlocked and are at work while the kids stay home unsupervised, like after school. Next thing you know BANG.
I think they mis-worded the statute anyway. If you read it, it isn't anything like the little paper you sign when you buy a gun which states that it is "illegal to leave a gun unsecured where a child can have access to it." According to the statute, the child has to have access to it AND do something with it such as shoot it, take it to school, blow his toe off, etc. to commit the misdemeanor intended by the statute.
Any individual who resides with a minor, who owns or possesses a firearm, and stores or
leaves that firearm in a condition that the firearm can be discharged, and in a manner that the
individual knew, or should have known, that an unsupervised minor would be able to gain
access to the firearm, is guilty of a misdemeanor if such minor gains access to the firearm
without the lawful permission of the minor's parents or a person having charge of the minor,
and the minor in turn possesses that weapon unlawfully on any campus or educational property
in North Carolina; exhibits the weapon in a public place in a careless, angry, or threatening
manner; causes personal injury or death with the weapon not in self defense; or uses the weapon
in the commission of a crime. A minor is defined in this law as anyone under the age of 18 who
is not emancipated.
