01-30-2013, 09:57 AM
http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/01/3...=fullstory
Quote:By GIL SPENCER
gspencer@delcotimes.com
When it comes to my gun rights, I learn something new every day.
Tuesday morning, after filling out my application for a license to carry a concealed firearm, I stopped by our Sheriff’s office in the Delaware County Courthouse to turn it in.
Carole Rowlyk was at the gun permit desk.
It was Carole I talked to last week when I called to ask about what I needed to do to apply.
She told me it was “very, very easy.” And it is. When the damn state computer isn’t on the fritz like it was Tuesday.
Carole was very apologetic, but there was nothing she could do until she was back online.
She did tell me that after last week’s column ran, there was a spike in applications.
“We had like 119 people come in the next day,” she said.
A coincidence? Who’s to say?
But even though I couldn’t apply for my permit, one of the things I learned Tuesday was this: I don’t need one to carry a gun in public.
Pennsylvania is an “open carry” state, which means if you want to strap a holster to your leg, you can carry your gun in plain sight walking down any public street in the commonwealth — except, of course, in Philadelphia. (First-class cities are excluded.)
From Lt. Michelle Conte I learned that though I am required to put down the names, addresses and phone numbers of two references, no one will bother to call them because it is assumed that they’ll stick up for me no matter how bad my character or reputation. Besides, it costs too much. All they do now is run names through the National Crime Information Center and the Pennsylvania Instate Check System and they pretty much leave it at that.
“We have done (reference) checks for the last five years,” Michelle said. “We used to go out and even do home checks on people, but it became too costly” in time, gas and money and there were “officer safety” concerns.
As it is, the $20 licensing fee collected by the county doesn’t begin to pay the full cost of processing all the applications. Last year, the county set a record of receiving 6,051 of them. But the county only gets to keep $5 of each payment. It takes two full-time clerks to keep up with all the permit requests. So do the math.
The county used to charge $40 for the license, but the state’s Uniform Firearms Act set a limit of $20 because, the thinking went, cost should be no burden when it comes to the right to protect oneself.
As our state constitution, which predates the federal version, makes clear: “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.”
~snip~