CA Sheriff Gets Big Donation, Issues Rare Carry Permit

By Tom Knighton

There are two ways in which a state will issue a concealed carry permit: “Shall issue” or “may issue.”

“Shall issue” means that so long as you meet the requirements for being issued a concealed carry permit, the issuing authority has to give you the permit. “May issue,” on the other hand, means that the issuing authority has absolute discretion as to who gets a permit and who doesn’t. Just qualifying isn’t enough, the issuing authority–usually the county sheriff–has to approve of you as a person he or she wants to allow to carry a firearm.

The idea behind “may issue” is that even if someone has no criminal convictions, the sheriff’s office may know them to be potentially violent and not someone responsible enough to carry a gun.

In theory.

In practice, however, “may issue” laws open the door for corruption. When someone has a say in who can get a permit and who can’t, some people are going to make offers to facilitate them getting permits. This is especially true when you’re talking about an elected official who has to campaign for office. That just makes it easier to hide the corruption.

Which may well be what happened recently in …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms