On Wednesday, Aug. 26, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department announced that the current average processing time for concealed carry handgun (CCH) permits remains at 90 days.
That’s despite a significant rise in people wanting guns and wanting permits to carry one – due largely to unrest in the streets.
The department calculated the time frame by using the date at which a concealed carry application is completed (including the fingerprinting portion) to the date at which the permit is provided.
The bad news is that, thanks to new procedures due to COVID-19, it will be quite a while before you can schedule an appointment for fingerprinting. The Sheriff’s Department is currently scheduling fingerprint appointments for December 2020.
According to the Aug. 26 press release from the department, “The current processing time was impacted by two factors: (1) a dramatic increase in CCH and Pistol Purchase Permit (“PPP”) applications; and (2) the initiation of safety precautions for Guilford County Sheriff’s Office employees during the early phases of COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Rhino Times reported earlier this month that the request for handgun permits in Guilford County this spring had tripled compared with the same period last year. Also, there had been a nearly 50 percent increase in requests for concealed carry permits.
The Aug. 26 release explained how concealed carry permits have been affected by the pandemic.
“Processing requires fingerprinting, and fingerprinting necessitates close, face-to-face interaction between Sheriff’s Office employees and applicants. Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) was, however, in very short supply during the first several months the COVID-19 pandemic (March through May). As a prudent and necessary health and safety protection measure for our employees and applicants, the acceptance of new CCH applications and the fingerprinting portion of existing new CCH applications was temporarily suspended from March 17 to May 30, 2020.”
The department went on to state that that suspension affected new concealed carry applications – however, the Sheriff’s Department continued to process concealed carry renewals and pistol purchase applications. Then, after sufficient personal protective gear arrived, the department re-started the new CCH application and fingerprinting process on Monday, June 1.
The department listed the many measures it’s taken to keep the process going as well as possible in spite of the difficulties caused by the pandemic.
“In sum, Sheriff [Danny] Rogers and his Staff are strongly committed to defending and protecting the Second Amendment rights of Guilford County residents to lawfully purchase firearms and to lawfully obtain concealed carry permits,” the release states. “Although employee safety issues caused by the Coronavirus, and a dramatic increase in CCH and Pistol Purchase Permit applications created some unforeseeable difficulties, the Sheriff and his Legal Process Division are continuously re-assessing and employing new strategies to keep CCH processing times as short as we can.”
The simple solution is to buy a long gun.
Three months is pretty ridiculous. Your tax dollars at work (not).
We have all seen the results of having a Democratic run government.What we are experiencing is they want you locked in place and doing only what they allow you to do.We have seen that most of our leaders are female and minority ,just look at the cities that are aflame today.Democratic controlled with male gov,female mayor,female police chief ,and look at how the places are being looted and destroyed.Even our mayor says we should allow blm to destroy our Friendly shopping center and other.when do we become wise to the leadership and kick them all out and start over with a new group.
Sure. Every other business/government office has put procedures in place to work through the pandemic. The sheriff’s department should not be an exception. The reasons are just typical blah, blah, blah. If you are the sheriff, get a program in place and take care of this. How long does it take to fingerprint someone? Five or ten minutes at the most? What balderdash.
Danny Rogers is slow rolling your ability to legally defend yourself from the mob…….because Danny cares about the mob more than you.
CCW permits have always taken nearly that long. It is very important to get it right.
The High Sheriff needs to explain why every other country in NC does not have this same problem; Forsyth for example.
Sheriff Danny requires TWO appointments to be scheduled, one for fingerprints and another to notarize the CCH application. These are impossible to schedule simultaneously or even on the same day as the Guilford Sheriff is using a California company (http://www.permitium.com/ ) to process the scheduling. There are Currently few if any appointments available for either task sooner than 3 months out.
The Forsyth Sheriff requires no appointments and is meeting or beating the State’s requirement to process applications in 90 days.
Guilford’s Sheriff Danny is delaying the SUBMISSION of applications for 90 days or more, essentially increasing the wait time to over six months. This is not competent Administration; the simple act of combining submission with fingerprinting would almost double the number of available appointments and allow the applicants to spend one half-day downtown rather than two. I think Sheriff Danny fired everybody capable of critical thinking and have to wonder what other administrative systems are on life support under this Sheriff.
The delay comes from the request from mental health facilities. The rest is done fairly quickly. Sheriff Rogers has no say in how quickly the mental health reports come from the respected facilities.
Why was there a shortage of PPE supplies? Law enforcement agencies and other first responders should always be prepared for pandemics, terror attacks, and even meteor strikes. That’s why we have first responders. If they waited to buy it after the pandemic began, that’s just poor leadership, no matter who’s feet the problem lands at: the Sheriff, the Fire Chief, county council members, whoever. The public trusts that emergency agencies are well equipped and prepared for whatever the universe throws at us. Saying you didn’t have enough PPE erodes that trust.