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Enfield Ct. police come to your house for Pistol permit????

Carl in Ct said:
Well, I know our resident trooper was off duty the Saturday he took my application and he was sick as a dog too. At least he said he was off duty and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I felt terrible for the guy and gave him some cough drops which he appreciated very much. Anyway, he called me Saturday and said my permit was all set and I could come get it at my convenience. No wierd interviews, no banging on my neighbors' doors as far as I know. Unfortunately I was working so I could not pick it up but I will get it as soon as I can this week. So I am happy, glad things still seem pretty low key around here. Maybe if enough people speak up Enfield will stop with the interviews, etc.
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Thats great to hear Carl. What town?

Its unfortunate, we've lost one of the good ones to a job promotion. Captain Thomas LePore of Windsor was know to issue permits WITHOUT receiving the results of the fingerprint check back from the state/FBI if it meant not getting the permit back to the applicant in a timely manner.

The law does not require him to wait. It only requires him to confirm the person's identity. Which as he described to me, just requires some basic police work.

I'm hopeful that his replacement in Windsor will follow in his predecessor's footsteps.
 
dcmdon, I'm in Lebanon, still a small town and pretty laid back, but not as small as it used to be. Most of the small dairy farms I worked on as a teenager have been swallowed up by two large outfits (Cushman and Graywall farms). Many of the small farmers sold their land to them or either to developers or to the state land bank. There are still a few small farms holding on but with land values what they are I guess I can't blame small farmers who are struggling to make ends meat who decide to cash out 100 acres or so for a cool couple million dollars.

As far as the permit process goes, I think the state just needs to make sure local authorities aren't overstepping their bounds and enforcing their own agendas instead of sticking to the statutes in place. They have taken steps to do so but it may take some actual punitive action against municipalities who go rogue with suitability requirements.
 
Carl,

You hit the nail on the head. The state can't do anything under the law to punish the towns for not sticking to the statute; even if they wanted to.

The law provides for the BFPE to order the town to issue a permit. But really nothing else.

So like is often the case, it is up to the individuals through the use of our Civil justice system to punish the town for their illegal acts.
Bottom line is that until someone in CT wins a six figure judgement against their issuing authority, the towns who want to break the law will continue to do so.

This is made more difficult by the fact that most CT judges are not friendly to these kinds of arguments.
Which is precisely why CCDL and others are suing the state to repeal Public Act 13-3 in Federal court and not state court.

Don
 
That's the sad part Don. Our civil authorities should be obeying the laws on the books no matter what their personal opinions/agendas may be. It's a shame that municipalities and states need to be dragged into higher courts in order to get them to follow the law. If a police cheif or resident trooper in Connecticut isn't willing to follow the law and issue permits as the law states they must, then they need to resign and move to an even more restrictive state where they can happily deny permits all day long.
 
Whats even more disturbing is that many of the officers whose responsibility it is to issue permits, and their chiefs dont even know the law.

Groton has been requiring a "fingerprinting" appointment for years. It can sometimes take 4 months to get an appointment. The law does not require that the issuing authority do the fingerprinting.

Recently a resident of Groton simply mailed in his application. The IA refused it. The resident went to the BFPE and appealed. At the hearing, the BFPE told Groton that their process was ILLEGAL. They then ordered the town to issue the permit. The licensing officer didn't even know what the law was. He said he did it that way because thats how he was trained by his predecessor.

Here is the audio of the exchange: BFPE informs town that their process is illegal ? CT Pistol Permit Issues
 
I'm getting refinger printed today in New London. I had a finger print card made last year in Norwich before I had my hours cut from 45 to 17, and thus didn't have the money for the permit. They were going to accept them at first, except that Norwich had already filled out the return section. Good news is that they are waiving the finger printing fee for me.

I also included my guard card info and valid out of state permit info hoping that it'll speed the process up (also have a TWIC but didn't make a copy of that).

My father in law, who lives in Waterford, had an interview, but I can't remember if it was at his house or not.
 
Best of luck EMitch, hope you got your hours back, that was quite a cut you took.

I would not even have a huge issue with an interview except that I'm not sure it's within the local police authority to require it, I don't think it is. I really object to anyone contacting people's bosses, neighbors, etc. I don't think that's fair and they aren't going to get objective info all of the time and it's none of my neighbors' or boss' business if I am applying for a permit.

I dunno, is the list of CT permit holders available to the public? Maybe it is but even still, it's not right to bring it to people's attention that I am applying for a permit. In this day and age with so many uninformed liberals who think you are the boogey man if you own a gun, that is info I might not want my boss and neighbors to know about. My current boss wouldn't care but her boss is a liberal who has small kids and he lives in Sandy Hook. His kids weren't at the school where the murders took place but he is definitely not too friendly towards guns and I'd rather not have him thinking I am the boogey man when promotion possibilities might arise.

If people want to know if I have a permit they can try to look it up if it is publicly available info, otherwise they will just have to wonder. Some of my neighbors have guns and most of them know I have them and they are fine with it (too bad if they aren't). I am so glad I didn't have to deal with any of that, it makes me so mad that some people are being subjected to this BS.
 
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slugworth said:
My buddy just got a call about his permit, they said they need to come to his house for a few questions..Said it should only take 10min or so...

Thought that was weird.. Maybe its the norm now there???
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Glad I got my CT permit years ago. And I do remember the form making it clear that they can a do (occasionally) contact employer and neighbors. I gave my boss a heads up but no one was ever contacted.
 
Thanks, Carl. I'm glad to be done working at that job (finished in January). Cabela's might be a nice place to visit, but not work, at least not that store. I'm currently onto my second security job since then and am really enjoying it. Hopefully the contract doesn't fall through (work stoppage right now) and we'll be around for a few years.

They didn't charge me the $5 fee from the website (not sure if the officer knew it was waived for me or if he just forgot as he hadn't done many), and NL does the digital ones, Norwich is still ink, if anyone was curious.

New London PD said 6-8 weeks, which gives me hope. My TWIC only took 6 days, most people were 3 weeks or more. Hopefully having all those licenses (AZ CCW, Guard Card, TWIC) will make the check go quickly. Other than that, they only mentioned a 10-15 minute interview with the Chief, nothing about employers or neighbors.
 
ptanks56 said:
Glad I got my CT permit years ago. And I do remember the form making it clear that they can a do (occasionally) contact employer and neighbors. I gave my boss a heads up but no one was ever contacted.
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The form does not say anything of the sort. What you read were instructions that local PDs ILLEGALLY add to the application packet.

The IA is authorized to only do what is in the law. Which is to put a packet together with fingerprints and submit it to the DESPP SPBI. The SPBI then formats it for submission to the FBI and sends it back.

The FBI system is totally automated, with replies coming in a matter of hours, not days. Then the SPBI replies to your IA.

Carl in CT the interviews are illegal. As is the requirement that the IA actually take the prints, as is the practice of charging for prints.

Emitch - nobody did you a favor by not charging for prints. They were merely following the law. Shoot me a PM with your email. If you are interested in speeding up the process and knowing your rights I may be able to help.

You may also want to reach out to l3nny benedetto or Scott Wilson on the CCDL facebook page. They are both from New London and know that town's specific ins and outs very well.


Don

p.s.

Here is a link to the DPS799., It is ALL THAT YOU HAVE TO SUBMIT: http://www.ct.gov/despp/lib/despp/slfu/pistol_permits/dps-799-c.pdf

Here is a link to the BFPE declaratory ruling that any extra requirements are illegal. This includes letters of recommendation, interviews, requriing your prints are done there, etc.

http://www.ct.gov/bfpe/lib/bfpe/bfpedeclrule.pdf
 
Listen to Don. Don't let your towns get away with this BS. By doing so you are enabling them to make it worse and worse as time goes on.

THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW.
 
You guys are right, we all do need to get involved. I was lucky, my permit process has gone smoothly so far and my town didn't pull any B.S. but it infuriates me that so many other towns do. I just need to get my butt to Middletown or Montville the 2nd week of Sept. for the real state permit now (and cough up another $70 of course).

Even if it were just one town it would infuriate me and my experience should be the norm, I shouldn't feel lucky about it, I should expect it to go smoothly with no B.S. What really ticks me off lately is that when people speak up against something like this big brother doesn't back off and obey the law, big brother just changes the law to make their B.S. the new law. Still, we can't sit back do nothing, that's what they want.
 
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Carl in Ct said:
You guys are right, we all do need to get involved. I was lucky, my permit process has gone smoothly so far and my town didn't pull any B.S. but it infuriates me that so many other towns do. I just need to get my butt to Middletown or Montville the 2nd week of Sept. for the real state permit now (and cough up another $70 of course).

Even if it were just one town it would infuriate me and my experience should be the norm, I shouldn't feel lucky about it, I should expect it to go smoothly with no B.S. What really ticks me off lately is that when people speak up against something like this big brother doesn't back off and obey the law, big brother just changes the law to make their B.S. the new law. Still, we can't sit back do nothing, that's what they want.
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You right. If you've read any of my posts in the CT law forum, you know that I ckeep coming back to the Board of Firearms Permit Examiners (BFPE), and how they keep the local issuing authorities (towns) in line by ordering the town to issue a permit if necessary.

Well, the BFPE is now under attack. One of its members is vocally pro gun rights and takes the attitude that if a person is not prohibited from owning firearms (i.e. a "prohibited person") then they should have a pistol permit if they want. This doesn't set well with the media and the DESPP.

The Courant ran an editorial asking for "reform" of the BFPE with an attitude of "how dare they second guess the police".

Further, last year, in the interest of "budget savings" they tried to roll the BFPE into the DESPP. That would have been a disaster.

The BFPE is definitely in their cross hairs.
 
I'm currently waiting the 14-16 weeks the Town of Trumbull told me it wold take for the permit. They asked for two references, which I gave them. They have yet to call the two names. They did however call my neighbor who I barely ever see or talk to. My wife happened to run into that neighbor who mentioned the police called. I would never have given out a neighbors name as I don't need the neighborhood knowing my business. I'm assuming other neighbors (who I see even less) were called as well.
 
Jack1719 said:
I'm currently waiting the 14-16 weeks the Town of Trumbull told me it wold take for the permit. They asked for two references, which I gave them. They have yet to call the two names. They did however call my neighbor who I barely ever see or talk to. My wife happened to run into that neighbor who mentioned the police called. I would never have given out a neighbors name as I don't need the neighborhood knowing my business. I'm assuming other neighbors (who I see even less) were called as well.
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Its inappropriate to ask you for references.
 
I am preparing to file for CCW permit - I needed to complete some FOIA requests with my local town in respect to firearms related records. I have 2 cases pending before the Freedom of Information Commission (FIC) currently regarding the town.

I also have FIC cases pending regarding SB1160 and the secret meetings that they held, and I have proof of, trying to get the bill and the vote on the bill struck down due to violations of our open meetings requirements; since the FIC commissioners are appointed by both the governor and legislature, I doubt that PA13-3 would actually be voided by the FIC (although they have the authority to do so) but a finding that the legislature violated our open meeting requirements may provide courts with an argument that the law was passed improperly ~ something courts generally frown upon.
 
Jack1719 said:
I'm currently waiting the 14-16 weeks the Town of Trumbull told me it wold take for the permit. They asked for two references, which I gave them. They have yet to call the two names. They did however call my neighbor who I barely ever see or talk to. My wife happened to run into that neighbor who mentioned the police called. I would never have given out a neighbors name as I don't need the neighborhood knowing my business. I'm assuming other neighbors (who I see even less) were called as well.
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If I were you, I'd already have talked to DPS about the references and calling neighbors. Don't let PDs get alway with this nonsense.
 
I would ask people running for 1st selectmen questions and put their feet to the fire, so to speak, in towns where the 1st selectman is the chief ...
 
dcmdon said:
Yep. Every town in CT with a resident trooper, the 1st Selectman is the CLEO.
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I did not know that. I thought the resident trooper was the CLEO. In fact, when I applied for my 03 C&R FFL I sent the paperwork to my resident trooper, not the selectmen's office. I got the C&R license without any issues but it would not surprise me if my resident trooper just sent it along to the selectmen's office instead of giving me crap over it. Either that or the BATF just didn't care or didn't catch that error.
 
Carl,

Typically, the 1st Selectman delegates all of the tasks associated with being the CLEO to the resident trooper, since he's got no interest in law enforcement tasks. So on a practical level, what you did is not a problem.

Don
 
dcmdon said:
Carl,

Typically, the 1st Selectman delegates all of the tasks associated with being the CLEO to the resident trooper, since he's got no interest in law enforcement tasks.
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That may be, but I know that here in town permits land at the Selectmen's office. My local was signed off (years ago) by the (then) First Selectman.
 
dcmdon said:
Like I said TYPICALLY. The legal authority rests with the 1st Selectman, like you said. Its just that many prefer to delegate to the resident trooper.
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I'm guessing they can defer to the RST for advice, but, if the FS is the CLEO for the community, the FS is still the sign-off, no?
 
SpaceCritter said:
I'm guessing they can defer to the RST for advice, but, if the FS is the CLEO for the community, the FS is still the sign-off, no?
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Correct. The FS should be the sign off. As we both know, many politicians and police don't actually know the law. I would suspect that in some towns the RST just signs off.

Based on your questions, and this thread, I just checked on my C&R FFL app and it was signed by the FS. I do know that he pushed it down to the RST for advice.

I have one NFA item that I purchased before I set up a trust. I'll go check the form 4 on it to see whose signature is on it, when I get home tonight.

Don
 

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