LEOs pay $25.00 for an LTC...

[LoginName]

and no charge for renewals?

http://www.hpd.org/html/firearm_licensing.html

I know fees are set by state law. Is the fee exemption/waiver written in state law and I'm simply unaware of it? Or is Hingham just being benevolent and absorbing the $75.00 difference?

 

[JonJ]

Some departments don't charge anything for their own officers. The $25 fee is set in MGL Chp 140s131 (i)
Excerpted:

For law enforcement officials, or local, state, or federal government entities acting on their behalf, the fee for the application shall be set at $25, which shall be payable to the licensing authority and shall not be prorated or refunded in case of revocation or denial.

 

[drgrant]

I have heard, though, that some anti chiefs have still tried to bone
LEOs with the $100 fee... not sure if there is any truth to
that, or not.

-Mike

 

[MichaelJ]

Should be 100% free for them IMHO.

 

[rscalzo]

NJ charges $50.00 per year with two mandatory qualifications at a cost of $65.00 per qual.

 

[Len-2A Training]

I have heard, though, that some anti chiefs have still tried to bone
LEOs with the $100 fee... not sure if there is any truth to
that, or not.

-Mike

Yup, you have that right . . . and I can prove it. Some other towns are doing the right thing however. It's all "discretionary" as the chiefs can follow the law or not. They know that I'm not going to sue over "small change" so they can get away with it.

 

[Mach]

Didn't know that. Thank you!

 

[rscalzo]

I never charged our residents for NJ FID cards or Handgun Purchase permits. It didn't really cost that much to process. The fingerprint fees were out of our hands but residents did not pay the ten dollar printing fees. While we had the ability to charge fees for the permits, I never saw the need. Fortunatly the town had ample resources.

What a lot of people don't realize is that processing permits isn't a full time job in most towns, especially the smaller ones. Along with handgun permits, we also had taxi driver permits, vendor permits and others. All of these permits were handled by one Detective along with all of his other duties. This was in a department woth 75 officers. A small department with ten or so would get behind quickly.

 

[Mach]

The fact that MA requires LEO to have a LTC in order to buy ammo and weapons other than a duty weapon is absurd. The state gives you a weapon for duty, but you can't buy bullets to practice unless you pay $100 for a permit? Lets do away with that law while we are at it.

 

[Pilgrim]

I agree with Jim, and my son is a cop.

I don't believe in setting the LEOS about the rest of us citizens... like so many of the laws seem to.

Killing a cop gets you the death penalty. Kill me and you're out of jail in 8-10. I'm just as valuable to my family as a cop is to his.

I have the utmost respect for LEO's but they are only people like me who should be treated the same.

 

[rscalzo]

You missed one big point. The LE officers of the state can't just turn and walk away from deadly situations. They are expects to push ahead even if they are put into a dangerous position. If you want them treated the same, don't expect them to put their butts on the line without at least expecting the state to treat their killers somewhat differently.

 

[Another_David]

I'm a bus driver, I drive a bus --> I need to purchase a license to drive a bus.

I'm a cop, I carry a pistol --> I need to purchase a license to carry a pistol.

This seems simple enough to me and I'm neither a bus driver nor a cop and yes I appreciate what cops do and respect them.

 

[rscalzo]

I would agree except that the cost down there is outragious. In any case it would be job related and a tax deduction for them.

I drove a police unit. I had to pay for both my auto and mc licenses. No one picked up the cost. Did the company pick up the cost of your CDL and medical exams?

 

[drgrant]

IMO the $100 fee only exists because its the state's way of discouraging
people from obtaining a firearms license. The $100/yr bonejob on
nonresidents is even further evidence of this. The goal is not to
generate revenue it is to discourage people from getting licenses.

I mean seriously, is the real administrative cost of an LTC really $100? IIRC a
drivers license costs less than that.

-Mike

 

[rscalzo]

The cost to process an application in NJ which has somewhat similar requirements propably was $100. But we didn't charge anything for that license. If the Detective had research some of the references or actually go and meet these people in person, it could take a few hours. Most were handled in house without much fuss. Unless they actually do a phyisical background check on each applicant, it doesn't take that much time. We used civilian clerks for much of the paperwork handling chores.

 

[FITH]

The fact that MA requires LEO to have a LTC in order to buy ammo and weapons other than a duty weapon is absurd. The state gives you a weapon for duty, but you can't buy bullets to practice unless you pay $100 for a permit? Lets do away with that law while we are at it.

Why what make LEO any better then the Armed Citz.???
Put you pants on the same way. What next you can't take away their right to carry "NO MATTER WHAT" They are human...and they DO NOT NEED a LTC to do their job!!

 

[JonJ]

They are human...and they DO NOT NEED a LTC to do their job!!

And state law allows that but most departments mandate that their officers have an LTC.

 

[Garys]

IMO the $100 fee only exists because its the state's way of discouraging
people from obtaining a firearms license.
-Mike

When Mitt Romney came in, ALL license fees went up significantly, not just LTC fees. For example EMT certification went from $15.00 to $75.00 then to $150.00 for a two year certification. Executive agencies were ordered to raise fees by 4 or 5 times in order to defray the costs of running those agencies.

Professional licenses of all types went up. This was Romney's way of raising revenue and still being able to say "I didn't raise taxes". IIRC, the term for a LTC went from 4 years to 6. I don't know that any other license terms were extended.

Gary

 

[rscalzo]

Better than NJ. I pay $50.00 per year, plus the cost of the two recerts....plus ammo.....

 

[Scrivener]

They know that I'm not going to sue over "small change" so they can get away with it.

Thus encouraging MORE such abuse.

Also affirming my credo:

What you tolerate, you validate;
What you put up with - YOU DESERVE!

 

[Len-2A Training]

The LTC/FID fees were $10/5 years (LTC) and $2/lifetime (FID) until 1998 IIRC.

LTC went to $25/4 years and I don't recall what the new 4 year FID cost was.

~2002 or so, Romney decided "no new taxes" but he'd raise fees "that would only affect a few people". This is when the DL and Registration fees increased a small amount (I think $5) and the LTC and FID jumped to $100! The issuing town kept $25 and the state got the rest. It was NOT intended to pay for the "cost of doing business" but to offset a state-wide deficit in general funds.

A big stink about the $100 fee for an FID for OC/Mace which cost $15 or less to buy resulted in a drop of that fee to $25.

GOAL realized that they could not get the state to drop the $100 fee to a more reasonable amount (there is a legal, procedural reason for this in legislative rules), so they pushed hard for an increase to 6 years. We won this battle and now our LTC and FIDs are good for 6 years. No change in NR fee/expiration.

Scrivener, spending hours of thousands of dollars in legal fees to get back $10 or $75 in overcharges just is not economical. That is why these sort of things happen and they get away with it (I agree with you there). That is also why "class action suits" have their place to try to correct these injustices where any single party action is economically non-feasible.