Update: Massachusetts Gun Licensing Process

More than six months ago I decided to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights and get back into a hobby I'd had since high school, as well as join the largest civic organization in my town, by starting the process of getting my firearms license in Massachusetts. If you've read my blog, you know that the process can be long and expensive: Massachusetts firearms laws and licensing regulations are among the strictest in the nation. Everyone who applies for a license here is subjected to a rigorous criminal background check and mental health background check at the state and Federal levels. You will be denied a license if you have ever in your life been convicted of a misdemeanor that carried a possible jail sentence of 2 years, even if that happened in 1947 and all you did was pay a fine, and you've never been in trouble with the law since. If you've ever had a DUI, don't bother applying., etc. etc.

I passed the safety course with flying colors, receiving a 100% on the written test. I also fared pretty well on the live-fire exercises, no doubt as a legacy of my years of experience shooting rifles as part of a competition high-school team.

Massachusetts has a three-tiered licensing system for firearms. To purchase long guns such as simple bolt-action rifles and single or double-shot shotguns, you need an FID (Firearms Identification) card. However, if you want to carry any type of handgun or buy a rifle or shotgun that is on the Attorney General's "Large Capacity Firearms" list, you need to apply for either a Class A or a Class B License To Carry. Even with a Class A LTC, there are hundreds of firearms available in say, New Jersey (not exactly known as a gun-friendly state in itself), that cannot be legally purchased or transported into Massachusetts because of the certification process that gun manufacturers must endure to have their products certified for sale here. Many manufacturers have simply stopped trying because of the costs and red tape involved. Glock and Kahr are two of them, but there are many others and it's an interesting story if anyone would like to hear it later, but I digress...

I won't go into the rest of Massachusetts' laws in this post, but I applied for a Class A LTC. Under the Romney administration, the process of applying for these licenses was automated: you no longer had to fill out any paperwork. You simply arrive at your local police station, pay the $100 fee (in addition to the firearms course fee, which can run into the hundreds of dollars) answer questions, and have your fingerprint scanned and your digital photograph taken. The stated goal of automating the system was to streamline the process and make it more responsive, quicker, and even more environmentally-friendly. In my town, more than half of the people are armed citizens and we have a large population of hunters and sportsmen, so this isn't what you could characterize as a "anti-gun" locale in terms of the local police department. When the Chief of police lived in the apartment that I now rent in my building, he had a big "Ruger" sticker on his front door to warn potential intruders. I would be very surprised if he and his officers don't carry when they're off-duty.

It has now been more than three months since I submitted my application, even though I was told that it would take less than eight weeks at the outside. In fact, more than six weeks ago I was called and asked to return to the police station to have my fingerprint re-scanned, evidently the result of a technical glitch due to a system upgrade that had caused four of five other applications to be postponed along with mine. Still, the officer who took my scan told me that the State Police were "putting a rush" on those applications because of the delay.

Well, it's almost eight weeks later than my second trip to the police station and the second application submission, and I still haven't heard anything. Yesterday I decided to drop into one of the local sporting goods and gun shops and have a chat with the owner about my saga. He wasn't surprised, and gave me this terse summation (I'm paraphrasing):

"We know a lot of people who have expereinced even longer delays. We've been trying to get the Governor to notice that there is something wrong with the system, but so far, there has been no movement or action there. I would recommend that you join G.O.A.L. in Massachusetts and carefully document your experience, because we're trying to compile a group of examples of how the system isn't working. It's a problem. There are three agencies involved in the background check and if one of them drags its feet..."

Then we went on to discuss his stock of .22 rimfire target pistols.

I have no reason to believe that anyone in the police department in my town is responsible for the delay: I know the Chief personally (it's a small town, and I live in what used to be the police station) and his officers couldn't be characterized as "anti-gun" or "anti-2nd Amendment" so I have to believe that my local gun dealer is trying to tell me something about the way the Patrick Administration works, which should come as no surprise given his pedigree in the Clinton Justice Department.

I have to say that making someone wait more than twice as long as expected for a license that was applied for electronically has the side effect of making them feel as though they are doing someting wrong just by applying. My dealer advised me *not* to pester anyone without speaking with G.O.A.L., however -- the state can deny the license for virtually any reason it sees fit, including a perception that someone is a crank when they complain about their application taking so long. Nice.