County sheriffs across the country are refusing to process and issue carry permits, and gun owners are stuck with few options.
This list is not even close to exhaustive, but gives a snapshot of what’s happening nationwide.
Starting with Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where the Sheriff’s office is closed to the public and not issuing permits for the next two weeks. Check out the line outside the sheriff’s office the day before it closed:
#Update: Here’s a look at the current line outside of the #gun permit office at lunch time. This will close today for 2 weeks, per sheriff’s office. #concealedcarry @KDKA pic.twitter.com/398LX5Ecd7
— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) March 16, 2020
The sheriff’s office later said that they had issued 80 permits in the single day before it closed!
In Henry County, GA, Sheriff Keith McBrayer announced that his office will be cancelling all concealed carry classes until further notice. They are also cancelling prisoner visitation and other programs, so it’s not just gun owners they’re targeting.
Still, Henry county has a population of 230,000 on the southeast side of Atlanta. No doubt there are folks in that county who are worried, who live alone, who have nowhere to go. People who would like to get a handgun permit at this stressful time.
In Ohio County, West Virginia, they’ve suspended all carry permits until April 10th because they don’t want their staff to come in contact with the broader public. Their announcement came on March 12th, meaning gun owners have to wait nearly a month to get a permit–if they can even get one then.
Monogalia County, West Virginia has said the same thing–no permits because they don’t want “personal contact with personnel.” Except this county hasn’t given an end date. It’s ‘until further notice’ so it could stretch out a month or better.
In the state of Ohio, multiple more county sheriffs are saying the same thing: we’re not issuing permits because we can’t expose our staff to the public. Fayette County, Belmont County, and more all the time are closing their doors to the public.
In Colorado, the number of background checks has more than doubled for the same week last year. In fact, a backlog of more than 5,000 requested background checks has caused the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to expand their staffing hours to handle the increase in workload.
But Mesa County, Colorado has stopped issuing new permits due to the requirement that applicants be fingerprinted by county personnel. They did highlight on their website, however, that Colorado is an “open carry” state and that gun owners didn’t need to apply for a permit to exercise that right where allowed.
Constitutional Carry Solves All These Problems
This is why gun owners need Constitutional Carry. As long as you meet the requirements to carry a gun–that is you aren’t a felon, haven’t been convicted of a crime that would make you ineligible, etc.–then you are automatically allowed to carry.
This eliminates the permitting process entirely, removing any need for citizens to fill out paperwork in a sheriff’s office. It eliminates the fees, as well, and that’s why so many states are opposed to Constitutional Carry. In states like Minnesota, for example, the revenue off of concealed carry permits is nearly $30 million dollars a year! That’s not money they can easily replace–and in Minnesota, they’re used to losing money by the suitcase full!
This virus has made several things crystal clear: Americans NEED Constitutional Carry exactly because of circumstances like this!