The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners have been getting a lot of negative feedback lately on how long it’s been taking to get concealed carry handgun and pistol purchase permits over the last year and a half.
On Tuesday, June 8, Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers put out a progress report on the processing of concealed carry handgun and pistol purchase permits. The report explained improvements in the process that are meant to speed things up.
Last month, the department described a “dramatic increase” in permit applications for both concealed carry and purchase permits. From April 1 to March 31 in 2021, the department saw an increase of just over 100 percent in applications for pistol purchase permits and a nearly 80 percent increase in applications for concealed carry permits compared to the same period in 2019.
The increase in requests, combined with the COVID-19 restrictions, slowed things down. However, the department reported this week that measures adopted recently to speed up the process have been paying off.
“Having substantially reduced the number of pending Pistol Purchase permits, Sheriff Rogers and his team are focusing on Concealed Carry permits,” the press release states. “The Sheriff’s Office currently utilizes two ‘Live Scan’ electronic fingerprinting machines to process Concealed Carry Handgun permits. This week, Sheriff Rogers is adding a third ‘Live Scan’ machine to reduce the wait time for concealed carry appointments.”
The statement added that, once that machine is operational, the department will start rescheduling fingerprint appointments by condensing two months of appointments into a single month – thus significantly reducing the wait time to be fingerprinted.
Since April 21 of 2021, the department said it has achieved the following:
- 1,509 pistol purchase permits completed.
- New applications are submitted each day, but the number of daily pending purchase permits has fallen from 420 on April 21 to 98 as of June 7.
- 709 concealed carry permits were completed from April 22 of this year to June 7.
There are currently 3,697 pending applicants for concealed carry permits who’ve already been fingerprinted but are waiting for mental health clearances from local providers, or for the issuance of their permit by the NC State Bureau of Investigation and there are 2,640 applicants who have submitted a concealed carry application who’ve already been scheduled for a fingerprinting appointment.
“There are currently 3,697 pending applicants” – totally unacceptable! Its a case of a liberal socialist minded sheriff taking away the 2nd amendment rights of law abiding citizens! Plain and simple.
I am one of the 3,697 applicants waiting. In two weeks it will be a FULL YEAR since I began this process; I believe NC law specifies 45 day turnaround. I was told 3 months ago “mental health is the holdup”. If so, what is being done about that? Is it a purposeful anti-gun manipulation by bureaucrats at that agency? Who is responsible for that part of the vetting? I’d like to hear that official’s alibi. When will the current backlog be cleared? The sheriffs’s many numbers above tell me nothing more than Skip’s “working on it” comment. It is no wonder the public officials in this county are the subject of cruel jokes in Raleigh and Charlotte; maybe we’ll at least get a decent mayor in November.
Same here. Next month will be a full year. I find it utterly hard to believe any reason this process should take a year since it’s the same background check that takes normally 10-20 minutes when purchasing a firearm.
Absolute lack of care and concern is all I can see from the department.
I submitted my renewal permit to carry on 12/10/2020 . I have a stellar record, called 3 times and still have not received it. This is unacceptable for this to take this long
A more educated photo would have been highly desirable. The photo used shows total ignorance of proper gun handling. 1) No pistol should be placed in a waist band without use of a holster that completely covers the trigger guard to prevent accidental firing of the weapon. 2) The idiot has his finger on the trigger as he is retrieving/replacing the handgun, bad enough at anytime when not aiming at a target that has been thoroughly checked, but really stupid when the barrel is pointed at your tail bone.
too little, too late and still a heck of a backlog.
This is that ole philosophy that you do what I want or nothing happens .All indications are that either there is an outright holdup by the sheriff or there is a large level of incompetence of the help.Whichever the case may be ,the sheriff is still in charge.There is a statement of yesteryear:”promote to the level of incompetence “.When the shoes fit ,put them in.There are no reasons to have this many concealed to carry permits on backlog.We always have the option at vote time!!!!
Learn the Laws no Right can be taken from you if you don’t Give up that Right!!
Maybe they are all out trying to find the high sheriff’s stuff.
Has he lost anything this week?
1- The CCH permit system in NC has not been updated since the law was enacted in 1995. Other states have modernized.
2- Other counties are not as backlogged. In Alamance, citizens do not make an appointment. They walk in during business hours.
There is no excuse. Other counties do not have this problem. And the problem is our power-mad Marxist city govt.
Very like calling your (SCHWAB) broker to make a purchase. Sorry, it will be 10-30 minutes because of “high call volumes” (it’s your fault).
City has nothing to do with the sheriffs department