Massachusetts SJC: Police Chief Within Rights to Deny Gun License

[flamin lib]

http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Massachusetts-SJC-Police-Chief-Within-Rights-to-Deny-Gun-License-295961521.html

The chief of police in Worcester was within his rights to deny a gun license to a man charged with domestic violence, the state's highest court ruled Wednesday.
In a unanimous ruling, the seven-member Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court also found that the state's "suitable person" standard used to deny the license is constitutional.

Massachusetts has a "may issue" standard for handing out carry permits. Over the past decade the NRA has pushed to have states use a "shall issue" standard meaning that local law enforcement cannot deny gun sales or carry permits to anyone unless they show up on the NICS list. It's the NRA stance that such local involvement would be capricious and place an undue burden on "law abiding gun owners".

Having local law enforcement involved in overseeing the issue of carry permits just makes sense to me, after all they probably have some insight into the character of the individual seeking to carry a gun in public places. Take George Zimmerman for instance. He has been arrested 6 times but not convicted on any charges so in Florida the state MUST issue him a license. Many years ago I lived in a small town in west Texas. A woman came into the law firm where my wife worked and asked for help. She had been pistol whipped by her husband and suffered a broken eye socket as well as other injuries. First call was to the local sheriff who said he could do nothing unless she filed charges and got a conviction which she wouldn't do because she had five children and a fourth grade education so without the low life husband she and her kids would be homeless. Such is the world of "shall issue".

Support a gun control organization of your choice. 30,000 people a year need your help to survive until next year. You can find one here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/126269

[NutmegYankee]

1. The main concern on pure "May Issue" is that it opens up the process to discrimination.

As we have seen in Ferguson and other communities, local police may be corrupt. A sheriff could easily refuse to issue licenses to minorities or gays because he is bigoted and use the "suitability" clause as his justification. It is better to either define conduct that will be considered "unsuitable" in the law, or have a board of permit examiners like Connecticut that can handle appeals and overturn a bad denial. Conn. had two such cases recently, one where the head official denied a woman a permit because he wanted her husband to resign from the town committee, and another where the police chief denied a permit based on political views. Both were overturned.

[flamin lib]

2. The gunners paranoid fear of discrimination doesn't move me.

But if a review board is good idea I can get behind that. Every purchaser goes before the board and gets a permit to purchase and if a carry permit is requested a compelling need to carry in public must be shown. Then the board MAY issue.

See, I can compromise.

[NutmegYankee]

3. The reason Connecticut is running as an effective "shall issue" is a quirk of their law.

While it has the suitability clause and a review board, a CCW permit is required to transport pistols by car anywhere. So to take a pistol to a range requires a CCW, hence the high number in the state.