Proof

Here's now Minnesota's concealed carry permit law worked from 1974 to 2003: If you were friends with your sheriff or police chief, you got your permit. This led to some amazing abuses - people with extensive criminal records but who had friends in high places got permits; people who'd been victimized, abused, attacked, and robbed went begging. It was possible - indeed, the norm - to get a concealed carry permit and not know anything about the law and rules of self-defense.

Today, the law works like this: If you're 21, pass a skills course and a background check (which shows no record of violent crime, violent mental illness or substance abuse), pony up the fee, and your local law-enforcement don't have verifiable, objective evidence that you're a ticking time-bomb, the Sheriff must issue you a permit.

Now, read this story, in which Ramsey County (Saint Paul) Sheriff Bob Fletcher is trying to revoke a permit for a person about whom some nasty history has emerged:

At the urging of then-St. Paul Police Chief Bill Finney, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher in 2004 issued a gun permit to a friend of Finney's despite the man having a "criminal history," Fletcher said Thursday.

The disclosure is contained in a letter Fletcher sent last week seeking the return of the gun permit, which had been issued to Aaron Walter Foster Sr., a longtime friend of Finney's.

This, of course, used to be enough to get the permit in the first place.

Now - watch the anti-gun crowd (those that are left after the three years of pretty much unimpeachable success for the Minnesota Personal Protection Act) try to paint this issue as a problem with the new law.

We also see that Minnesota's news reporters haven't gotten much better about reporting the specifics of the carry law:

Minnesota law allows a permit except when an applicant has no gun training, is mentally ill or is a convicted felon.

The law places the burden of proof for rejecting permits on law enforcement, and gives them certain objective, empirical, easily verifiable grounds to do so.

Under the law, Fletcher said, he has discretion to deny gun permits if he thinks someone is a danger to the public, which he did in Foster's case. He said he reconsidered after Finney vouched for Foster.

"We trusted Bill Finney's judgment, and as it turned out his judgment was terrible," said Fletcher.

"He doesn't trust me, so why would he overrule his own judgment based on something from me?" Finney asked Thursday.

Why, oh, why indeed, would Sheriff Fletcher override his own judgement on the word from Finney, the former Saint Paul Police Chief and possible DFL candidate for political office?

Professional courtesy?

Fletcher said he decided to revoke the gun permit last week because of new information he received about Foster, including suspicions about his possible involvement in the 1981 Maplewood death.

Read the story - and watch for the inevitable crowing from Minnesota's astroturf anti-gun activists.

Posted by Mitch at September 22, 2006 07:46 AM | TrackBack