CHL Renewal

[R9SCarry]

The disparity in requirements for CCW state by state is almost absurd.

I enjoy my PA simplicity but also am aware that some folks might ''go get'' a CCW just because and have little or no firearms experience - and so some mandated training is in fact useful.

My renewal is due early in 2007 but it will be a 20 minute jaunt into local County SO - done and dusted!  I do feel tho for some folks where everything takes for ever - costs an arm and two legs and - initially requires something akin to boot camp re training!!

[Richard S]

tracker:

Although Tennessee requires applicants to take a course of instruction and to pass a written examination and a range test to obtain its "Handgun Carry Permit," it doesn't require any further instruction or testing for permit renewal. However, since all applications are processed centrally in Nashville by the Tennessee Department of Safety, renewal can take several weeks.  I found that out last year when I submitted my renewal application a little later than I should have done.  Fortunately for me, though, the Handgun Permit Office was willing to give me a letter to serve as a temporary extension of my original permit until my renewal could be processed.  

(Have you ever tried to fold an 8-1/2" x 11" letter into a 2" x 3" rectangle to fit the license window of a billfold?   :-/ )

    

[BillinPittsburgh]

The other downside to the lack of a training requirement is difficulty in getting reciprocity with other states.  I would like to see PA keep its current system but allow people with training to get a "training endorsement" printed on their license.  Maybe reciprocity agreements could be negotiated with more states if they were limited to licenses having such a training endorsement.

Just because a state requires training doesn't mean the training will help.  When I took the class in Arkansas over a decade ago, the legal instruction was awesome, but the shooting instruction left a great deal to be desired.  The instructor taught a method of point shooting that involved holding the gun 2-handed at about solar plexus level and keeping the gun in the corner of the eye to keep the windage where it should be.  I qualified, but have never shot a worse looking target during a class.  I was unable to repeat the method using the same gun several months later.

[bigyimmy]

Per www.packing.org TN will honor PA's, but PA will not honor TN's even though TN requires formal training.

[R9SCarry]

I should mention - note this folks -

Packing .org is currently being regarded as potentially seriously out of date on some aspects of carry info.

Gary Slider who was involved with running it a ways back has kicked off a new site which by all accounts is as good as or better - plus he is endevoring to keep it very up to date.

http://www.handgunlaw.us.

Go take a look - I think it could now be the definitive site - better than packing.

[bigyimmy]

Thanks Chris.

[Richard S]

Indeed, Chris, thank you for the link to the new site!  I've bookmarked it for continuing reference.

[DTM_39]

Chris thanks for the link.  I have bookmarked for future reference.  Unfortunately NY is not a very gun friendly place.  We are working to change that however.  Alot of votes in NYC tough to overcome.  Dan

[WoodstockDoug]

Oddly, living in NY does have its advantages.  Most importantly, currently our permits are lifetime, so we don't have to worry about renewal at all.  For now, anyway.  Pataki tried to change that, to limit the permits to 5 years and to charge a fee PER GUN REGISTERED.  Fortunately, that insane idea was stopped, but when you have nonsense like that coming from a Republican... I shudder to think what's going to happen next.

But for now we actually have it ok in most of NY, except the city.  Lifetime permits.  No training requirements.  Shall issue in many counties.  I can name at least five states that are more restrictive than we are, which doesn't put us anywhere near where I want to be, but at least we're not the very worst.  I just hope I don't eat those words four or eight or twelve years from now.

[DTM_39]

WoodstockDoug,  I'm on Long Island and our permits need to be renewed every 5 years and it still isn't a full carry. Very restricted. Dan

[tracker]

Not to bring up old wounds but Long Island will take a
long time to recover from the shooter on the LIRR many
years ago.

[sslater]

Tracker,
I remember the LIRR shootings pretty well.  No doubt, the "authorities" used that as an excuse for stringent CHL issue & renewal.
I don't recall the shooter having a registered weapon or a CHL.  So, as usual, when a criminal act is committed the "authorities" crack down on....the law-abiding citizens!
Sometimes they even pass a new gun control law, as if 22,000 gun laws already on the books aren't enough.  

Steve

[tracker]

Steve,
I agree; ironically, if CHL had been in existence then,
possibly the whacko could have been stopped or slowed.
Although, there is no way a commuter on the LIRR today
would be packing into and out of Manhattan.

With all of our different constraints we should probably be
thankful for a few things: viz., states rights, with all of our
differences, should be protected at all costs; and the privilege
of concealed carry.

Even today I have difficulty believing that we have a preponderance of states with a CHL law. That privilege
should be protected without compromise.  

[WoodstockDoug]

What the LIRR shooting and 9/11 have in common is: gun control laws are what led to them happening in the first place.  If passengers weren't routinely disarmed, a reasonable percentage of the passengers of those flights and that train would have been armed, and would have been able to stop the threat before it turned into what it did.  

Although the Second Amendment says the right to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed," I do believe that ONLY applies to American citizens, and I also believe that people who have been convicted of a felony have lost that "right."  So I do believe in some gun control.  But disarming passengers leads to hijackings.  It doesn't prevent them.  As a school teacher you can guess what I say about tragedies like Columbine...

[tracker]

Doug,
I agree; the massacre at Luby's cafeteria in central Texas
was the same thing. In fact, a female dentist who normally
carried a pistol in her purse watched her mother and father
die in that restaurant.
She said that she would never be unarmed again.