While I agree that some towns are more difficult than others I find the labeling system to be more of a detriment than a help. Let's stop encouraging many potential applicants to just lay down and take the restricted license without any 'fight' based on the comments and ratings they get here. It may be hard to acquire an unrestricted license but it can be done. The worst part of this whole thing is that anybody here who posts 'forget it that town is Red' is hurting not helping. Over the past couple of years I've had several friends who got ALP. In towns that you would classify as Red. One of them was literally laughed at by some of the uniformed officers at the station but she came away with an unrestricted license.
It's not a deterrent, it's a
warning- eg, "Danger Will Robinson, these people will bone you if you let them, so proceed with extreme caution".
Obviously every red/yellow town is different, and such an indicator means that the applicant has to do some investigation on their own (what a novel concept) to see which way the wind is blowing, or if there are wallhacks that can be exploited to get the desired license. ) Just because 10 out of every 100 people walks into (insert red town here) PD and somehow or another, isn't restricted, doesn't mean that most applicants aren't going to get hassled, downgraded, or otherwise abused by the system. Any town which restricts, denies, applies non statutory requirements, or discourages applicants is by default, worse than the other 50%+ which don't do any of that garbage.
These localities should be viewed with distrust. Anything less is a fools errand. It's been proven time and time again here that dealing with many red and yellow towns are often like playing with venomous snakes. Sometimes if you do the right thing or don't look like a food/threat nothing will happen. Another applicant might come up, get lied to, and get bitten in the process. There's also another fun issue, such as "LTC Aids" which is a whole other ball of wax. (Classic example is someone who takes temporary residency in a red town, gets the "taint" of a restricted LTC, and now can't get rid of it until it expires because the IA won't kill off the old license- if you are lucky
you can light up a lawyer blowtorch to fix this, if not, then you are boned until it
expires. )
People MUST use caution when dealing with red/yellow towns. I can't say this enough. I've lost track of the number of people on here who have gotten screwed by them. Many went in way too optimistic/naive and got hosed.
Further, what is this "fighting" that you speak of? Most of the time there is nothing to fight about- you either have the "keys" or you don't when applying, unless we're talking about an outright denial, where legal blowtorches can certainly be brought to bear, assuming the applicant can afford it (or, as is the case might be now, someone else might be able to underwrite your case if you fit the mold of a perfect plaintiff to make a run for the 2nd amendment case for MA. )
Some people "get lucky" but that's hardly reliable. In these cases, often knowing the "why" is often impossible, all you can do is make educated guesses. Any issuing authority that engages in gender/race/ability discrimination, for example, is not going to write that stuff on paper. (And if you don't believe it happens all the time in MA, I have a nice bridge to sell you.... ). Many towns have what I call "invisible boxes".... eg, there are need statements, etc, which might "fly" but the IA will not tell you this up front. The only way to find these out is with street intel from other applicants or from gun lawyers.
-Mike
