Paul Valone

After earning a B.A. in Psychobiology from Hamilton College, Paul pursued a career in aviation and has flown commercially for over 30 years. After becoming politically active in the early 1990s, he founded and directs two non-profit political organizations, having served as president of a third.
Aviation: As a twenty-five year air carrier pilot, Federal Flight Deck Officer and flight instructor with ten additional ratings, he writes about threats to aviation safety and security and lampoon the many absurdities of air travel.
Politics: As a political activist whose twelve years of experience includes four enacted laws and several elected legislators (including one congressman), Paul speaks with authority on legislation, politics and elections.

Guns: Pauls capacity as a gun rights advocate gives him expertise on gun control issues. As a firearms instructor who has been certified by the National Rifle Association and the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, he knows firearms and laws governing self-defense.

His credits include fifty-plus newspaper columns, spanning ten years, published in the Charlotte Observer, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Durham Herald-Sun, the Greensboro News & Record, the Asheville Tribune, and elsewhere. As a winner of the “Observer Community Columnist” competition in 1997 and 2000, Paul has written monthly columns for the Charlotte Observer, representing a perspective he describes as “somewhere between paleoconservative and Libertarian.” He built a dedicated readership, some of whom said they bought the paper primarily for my column. VENT Magazine published his 5,000 word article on aviation careers entitled “Off to a Flying Start” and Carolina Journal published his 1,500 word article entitled, “What you know about guns is wrong.” Paul has been interviewed and quoted by dozens of newspapers, and radio and television stations including CNN, BBC, National Public Radio and the Associated Press. Lengthy, debate-style interviews include NBC-17 in Raleigh (“At Issue”), Carolina Public Radio (“The State of Things”), and the two largest talk radio stations in the state: WBT in Charlotte (hosts Mike Collins and Keith Larson), WPTF in Raleigh (hosts Tom Joyner and Kevin Miller), as well as many others. Numerous speaking engagements for universities and non-profit or political organizations include the John Locke Foundation, Campbell University, and the Libertarian Party state convention. He often addresses committees of the North Carolina House and Senate on pending legislation.