Wife's GA CCW takes 53 weeks

[Ken Dunham]

The judge's reply to my letter indicated that the 60-days-shall-issue provision is superceded by a GA Atty Gen opinion that no CCW may be issued without a background check. (The FBI mislaid her background paperwork. Rather unkind of them since she is an ex-FBI crime lab employee.)

[Johnny Got His Gun.1]

Sorry to hear this news--a good example, though, of bureaucracy at its finest. Amazing that the criminals have the felonious carte blanche to carry, being they don't care about the law, yet law-abiding citizens are effectively put on hold in a CC state.

[Futo Inu]

That is total BS. The Atty Gen's opinion is NOT binding, nevermind totally wrong. Sue the bastards. You'll win, because these statutes are generally worded to plainly indicate that the licensing authority MUST issue (hence the phrase "shall issue"), when the 60 or 90 days is up, period. In other words, the legislatur intended that the state bear the risk of not getting off their duffs and completing the backround check for WHATEVER reason, be that FBI holdups, or their own incompetence, I mean overburden of applications. SUE, SUE, SUE the licensing authority! Everbody now sing along now.... And now in the round....Sue, sue, sue your gov't, or they'll screw you every time - merrily, merrily...

[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited July 27, 2000).]

[RickD]

Futo,

I agree.

AG opinions carry _some_ weight in court, but not very much. If it ain't in the statute (and you better know the statute backward and forward) it ain't the law.

That is, until some stupid lackey judge decides it is.

Rick

------------------
"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American." Tench Coxe 2/20/1788

[Danger Dave]

Hmmm, I thought the background checks were done by the GBI. Anytime the Feds get involved, it just complicates things.

Mine took 4-6 weeks to get.

[papercut]

Sounds like grounds for a suit to me. Georgia law says that law enforcement has 50 days to respond, and if the Probate judge doesn't receive a disqualifying answer from them, then he *shall issue* the permit within 60 days of the original application.

I hate to say this about my own A.G., but someone needs to explain the law to him.

Besides, the police doing the check (federal, state or local) can take an indefinite amount of time if they're checking someone without a record--how do they know when to stop?

[jimmy]

Good grief. This bureaucratic nightmare in GA sounds like Tsarist Russia groaning under the burden of its own governmental arrogance and inefficiency.

I'm amazed--but maybe I shouldn't be--that some of those charged with enforcing the law don't mind breaking it, while expecting everyone else to heed it to the letter. In my state, for instance, renewal carry licenses are required by statute to take no more than 45 days to process. And yet licensees (myself included) are having to wait much longer, thus bringing discredit on the entire system.

I don't need the government to show me how to obey the law. But I think the government needs to obey it at least as scrupulously as I do.