I’m a law abiding citizen (I used to have a friend that always incorrectly said “law providing” citizen… I never corrected him). I hear every day or so about how guns are killing America and this concerns me. I hear about how our nation is being flooded by guns. They’re everywhere. In our churches, in our national parks, in our schools, in the JiffyMart down the street. They are too easily obtained through the “gunshow loophole” and hell, you can just pop by the nearest pawn shop and grab one up on your way to church.
I have a little extra money in my Federal Savings Account so I’ve been thinking about buying handgun that I’ve wanted for a while. I haven’t bought a handgun in North Carolina yet so started looking into what I need to do.
First I found that in order to buy a handgun I need permission to do so. That permission is granted by the County Sherriff. In order to get the Sherriff’s approval I have to go to the GCSO (Gaston Count Sherriff’s Office) and get a form. I have to fill out that form and bring it back to the GCSO. I live about 35 minutes away from there so it would it’s pretty annoying. Thinking that I might be able to find the form online I went to the GCSO website and was surprised to see a prominently displayed link to “Gun Permits”. Clicking on this took me to page containing only an email address and the following process:
Gun Permit Application Procedures
Complete an application; application forms can be picked up or brought back to the Sheriff’s Office any day, Monday-Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm (except holidays).
After completing the front page of the application, you will need to bring the application back to the Sheriff’s Office. After all record checks have been completed and the application is approved, the final permit can be picked up at the Sheriff’s OfficeMonday-Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm. When you turn your application in, you will be given a phone number to call back in three to five days to see if your application was approved.
The fee charged by the Sheriff’s Office for issuing gun permits is $5.00 each. You may purchase up to five permits from one application. This is payable (CASH ONLY) to the Sheriff’s Office and is set by state law (G.S. 14-409). When the permit is picked up at the Sheriff’s Office, you will need to have correct change. If you do not have the correct change, we cannot issue the permit.
Gun permits are issued for the purchase of handguns only. It does not give you the right to carry the gun concealed. Carrying a concealed weapon without a N.C. State Concealed Handgun Permit is against the law (G.S. 14-269).
Gun permits are issued to allow you to purchase handguns for the protection of your home, business or property, to use in target shooting, hunting or collecting.
APPLICATIONS EXPIRE WHEN PERMITS ARE ISSUED. A NEW APPLICATION IS REQUIRED WHEN APPLYING FOR ANOTHER PERMIT. PERMITS MUST BE PICKED UP BEFORE 4:30PM AND WITHIN 30 DAYS OF APPROVAL. AFTER 30 DAYS THE APPLICATION WILL EXPIRE AND YOU WILL NEED TO RE-APPLY.
No form. I carefully read the process and thought the following:
- No reference to an online version of the form. Damn. The business hours look reasonable, even including the “except holidays” exclusion.
- The front page of the form? After finding the online version discussed below I discovered that it only had one page. So I was a bit concerned that something was missing. No holiday exclusion here? Can I pick up on a holiday? What “record checks”? Isn’t that what NICS is for?
- Seriously? Bring 1 five dollar bill for each permit that you want. Ensure that it is pressed and stacked neatly with other five dollar bills. Give me a break. I get that they might not want to maintain a cash drawer (it’s dangerous out there, that’s why I need a handgun after all). I get the feeling that that if I showed up with a 20 and asked for one permit that my request would be immediately denied and all permits destroyed. That’s probably not the case… they’d probably just make me walk across the street to the gas station for change. I’d be scared, it’s a rough neighborhood.
- Interestingly, though they don’t mention it, if you have a CCW then you don’t need a gun permit to buy. Your CCW suffices. I wonder why they don’t mention it.
- I was going to use my handgun as a paperweight for my desk and finally get rid of that half drank (drunk?) cup of moldy coffee. According to this passage that use is illegal in the state of NC. I’m only allowed a handgun if I intend to shoot something?
I realize that these comments are petty, but seriously? I’m not a criminal. Certainly not a felon. Who are they trying to protect me from?
While reviewing these rules I noticed a link in the header of the page called “Document Center”. Clicking that link takes you to a general download page that has a couple of hundred different forms and documents linked on it. It’s the typical small municipality website approach of putting everything in one place in hopes that someone will find something, anything, useful. I did. Using the search function I found this document under the heading “Sherriff” most of the way down the page.
Here it is:
I printed the form off and stood over my bar filling it out. I realized that the ten questions are the same ten questions that are required by the Brady Bill and that I’ll have to answer again when my NICS check gets completed. In writing this, I notice that I didn’t complete the “Previous Address” section of the form. That was somewhere in Illinois three and a half years ago. My memory doesn’t work that way. I needed to look it up so skipped it and meant to go back. I forgot. Hopefully that doesn’t cause problems. I finished off the rest of the form trying to write neatly and even included my (optional) SSN because the thing is linked to my Drivers License number anyway and maybe I get points for saving an admin some time looking it up.
I won’t go into the stupidity of asking criminals these ten questions. Billions of words have been written about the idiocy of asking a pot head in a gun store if he “has ever been an unlawful user of , or addicted to alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, depressants or narcotic drugs?” As I write this though, I wonder how many inherently honestly people have been denied the right to own a gun because of one bad decision in college… the phrase “ever been an unlawful user of” nails about 80% of the population. There’s not even a spot to say, “but I didn’t inhale”. Also, if coffee counts as a “stimulant” I’m completely screwed.
Now, I had no idea where the GCSO actually is so I rang up Rob over at hines57.com and invited him to lunch (see how that works?). When questioned, Rob knew exactly where the GCSO and the Courthouse and the Jail annex was. I’m not commenting on what that means other than that it got me where I needed to be.
Rob gave me directions while browsing Facebook on his iPhone which only resulted in one missed turn that required a two block trip around downtown Gastonia. The GCSO shares a parking lot with the county courthouse (and conveniently the Jail Annex) and requires that you pay to park. There were signs that had a complete scale posted at seemingly random places throughout the parking area but the relevant one was “$1 per hour or part thereof”. I love it when municipal code gets transferred to public signs. Not having a dollar bill on me I didn’t want to break the law by not paying so we stopped in the fire zone and Rob agreed to drive around the parking lot while I went inside. When I walked in there was a sign that said , “GUN PERMITS –> “ and pointed at the window that I would have stopped at to ask directions anyway. I handed the lady my form, she looked at it briefly to make sure that I had signed it and handed me a slip of paper that has a number and directions to call in 3-5 days and ask if my permits are ready. Thirty seconds later I was back in the parking lot and watched as Rob, now 40 yards away, got stuck in a lane and was forced back onto the divided street in front of the courthouse. Five minutes later he was back. As I stood there in the freezing rain waiting I took cold comfort in the fact that it served him right for making me miss a turn earlier. That five minute downtown tour probably cost me five dollars in gas for the F250 but I saved a dollar in parking dammit.
By previous agreement we went by “Wired Coffee Express” where I bought our usual round of Americanos fixed up by Owner and Proprietor Todd. The shop was empty at that time of day so as usual we stood chatting with Todd, trading barbs and exchanging a off-color jokes.
As we walked out of the store, offending (and addictive) stimulants in hand, a Sheriffs cruiser rolled slowly trough the strip mall. “DAMN!” I thought, “those guys are GOOD!”