On a whim I checked my permit and noticed I’ve been carrying for two years and a few weeks. For about 5 years before that time I was a gun owner disarmed by the “May Issue” permitting system of Massachusetts. I had guns, I had skills, and I had a will to carry, but was legally denied.
I refused to look at houses in towns that were hostile to gun owners like the previous towns I had lived in. When we moved I actually bought my current carry guns. I was carrying at home (A Mass gun owner may legally carry concealed on their own property with a restricted permit) when my new permit arrived. I put the permit in my pocket and walked across the street, then returned home.
How silly it is that a little piece of plastic somehow makes a difference, especially when places like Vermont, Alaska, Arizona, and most of Montana seem to do just fine without that silliness, and many states have permits that are little more than a NICS check and a fee.
And in these two years my gun has yet to have jumped out of its holster and shoot people, even when I have carried in areas posted “No Guns” (non-binding in Massachusetts), in places that serve alcohol, and places of worship (all not recognized in Mass Gun Laws).
For those who think we need more restrictions on our carry system, rather than less, I would note that their Emperor is Naked.
It sucks that a stupid piece of plastic is required for public carry anywhere in the United States. I can legally carry without any sort of totin’ permit on my property and in my vehicle, but I have to have the plastic if I want to go from my vehicle into Walmart, church, or the city park.
Yeah, well Alan Gura is right now working on the whole “Keep” part of the 2nd Amendment, and I don’t blame him, because without solid footing on that bit the whole “And Bear” part isn’t shit.
Still “…The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” part does say pretty clearly that owning guns, and toting them around should be pretty much sacred. And concealed carry should be as protect as my speech here under my pseudonym.
This is especially crude when today I entered a polling place and only gave my name and address and was handed a BALLOT! I did not show ANY FORM OF ID, and it would be illegal for the poll workers to ASK for it.
Meanwhile when I buy a box of ammo, or bullet, or a new gun, I need to show them my permit. BULL SHIT!!
I want to know how the little piece of paper or plastic changes you.
Does it give off waves of radiation that makes you unwilling or unable to break the law?
Does it uses chemicals to make you a more moral person when you have it in your possession?
That is the inanity the gun control advocates refuse to accept — the permit changes nothing about you.
You are just as moral and law abiding with the permit as you are without it.
Witness the fact you didn’t walk off your property until you had it!
I can show it to a cop if one ever asks to see it. That’s it. Even more insulting is in my 2 years I’ve carried damn near every day, and I’ve yet to show my permit for anything but transactions at the gunshop.
So in actuality my permit to date has done NOTHING. (OK, I did fax out several copies of it to get my other state carry permits which also do nothing to the same capacity)
I also found it interesting that with the new FBI murder statistics (I think I saw them at Everyday, No Days Off), Vermont has very little in the way of murders, and had no GUN DEATHS, despite the lack of need for permits.
They never have. Most of their “gun deaths” come from suicides which are a bit higher than average as seen in most rural states of Northern latitude. Seasonal depression is a huge factor here…and gun control won’t address it at all…and actually might make it worse if it takes away hobbies from bored people.
Vermont certainly has NO problems that can point to its permit-less carry. Hell the worst murder I heard about up there was a school teacher and her mother shot to death by an angry boyfriend, before he turned the gun on himself.
I frowned when I heard the story, not just for the loss of life, but for the blood dancing. Of course it turned out the murderer was from BOSTON and had a STOLEN handgun….
The plastic is magic. It indicates that you have a Great Ability To Do Paperwork.
Congrats on the card, Weer’d! Wow, only two years and change . . . I woulda guessed much, much longer . . .
Yeah MA is crazy for that. A buddy is getting his chops busted getting his FID renewed – locals sat on it for months, stateys are currently sitting on it – both in violation of the laws.
And if they stall long enough, he is in the wrong for posession without papers.
*sigh*
And what recourse does he have? Its not like he can call the cops on them. The only way to fight them is to lawyer up and sue the police.
As in Sue the Police in the town where you live! Pretty scary!