Chicago is already facing a Second Amendment suit. Now, via Thirdpower, it would seem they have grounds for a First Amendment suit as well. If Daley is behind the cancellation, they can file a federal civil rights lawsuit against him as well. We have such a thing as law in this country, and Dick Daley is not above it, no matter what he may think.
Year: 2010
Overcharging for Licenses
One problem with LTC’s in Pennsylvania is that how much they cost depends on what county you’re in, despite the fact that the fees for licenses are supposed to be set by law. Such is the problem now cropping up in Lehigh County:
Lehigh County officials are scrambling to figure out if Sheriff Ron Rossi’s office has been illegally overcharging gun owners for licenses to carry concealed firearms.
The sheriff’s office sent legislation to the county commissioners this week asking for the fee to be increased from $25 — the amount set by state law — to $38. While other counties also charge more than $25 for such licenses, Rossi’s staff began charging the higher fee years ago without legislative approval, spurring a slew of questions and criticism at this week’s commissioners’ meeting.
Commissioner Andy Roman said the county may have “a serious issue here” and called for an audit of the program as well as a legal review to see if people who’ve paid $38 for the licenses are entitled to $13 refunds.
Many sheriffs charge extra for a credit card style license that goes beyond what the state requires. I have no problem with this and hope sheriffs keep doing it, because the result of not pursuing this issue properly is going to be all of us having to carry paper licenses that just aren’t going to last for five years, or fit conveniently in a wallet. I do think the sheriffs need to inform applicants that the paper options is available at the state mandated price, however, and many are negligent with that.
But a lot of the fee variance isn’t because of issuing credit card style LTCs, it’s due to varying interpretations of the Sheriff Fee Act. The UFA does not allow for any fee to be charged “other than that provided by this subsection or the Sheriff Fee Act may be assessed by the sheriff for the performance of any background check made pursuant to this act.” While in the previous section, the 5 dollar fee allowed by the Sheriff Fee Act is stipulated, the Act also allows for the following:
In addition to fees provided for in this act, the sheriff shall be paid costs, charges and expenses incident to the performance of an act required by court, order, statute, rule or regulation including, but not limited to, printing costs, publication costs, services of experts, watchmen, postage and mileage, which shall be costs to be paid by the plaintiff, petitioner or person requiring them to be incurred.
That’s pretty broad, and open to interpretation by the Sheriffs, depending on what they want to charge for things. Really, until we get a legislative fix clarifying the intent, the truth us the Sheriffs can legally charge more for a permit than 25 dollars, provided there can be some kind of reasonable relation to the fee and a service (they probably couldn’t, for instance, drive your LTC application around to rack up mileage charges under the Act). I have little doubt that the legislature intended this to be a specific price, but until they reference that specific section of the SFA, this is the situation. The fix for this is likely going to need to come from the legislature.
Microstamping in New York
Jacob reports that arms are being twisted on the Microstamping bill in New York State, and that the sponsor is still trying to get it up again for a vote. It’s down, but not out.
Legal Name Change
SayUncle has a story about a gay woman who tried to get a license with her, err — husband’s? — last name on it after getting gay married in another state. If you look on the department’s web site, it notes the documents they accept for this purpose. I suspect she presented a marriage certificate from another state for her gay wedding, which is not legally valid in the State of Tennessee. What’s kind of funny, or tragic, I’m not sure which, is that they didn’t seem to notice until after the fact, I’m guessing when a supervisor noticed two female names on the marriage certificate. I guess the lesson here is if you’re going to get gay married to someone, but move to a state that doesn’t recognize it, you should marry someone with a androgynous first name. You know, like Pat, Kris, Jamie, or Toni. Either way, the cause is not lost. You can legally change your name in most states, and with a court order to that effect in hand, the DMV will give you a license with the last name you want.
Prejudices on Parade
Joe Huffman has been posting an ongoing series for the past few weeks, reviewing his collection of gun control supporting political cartoons, which tend to bring out all the leftist stereotypes of gun owners. Go have a look, and keep following. It gives you a pretty good idea what those in the media have thought about us over the years.
What a Choice
It has to be hard sticking to your incumbent friendly endorsement policy when you have an NRA Board Member running for Governor against an really Second Amendment friendly incumbent Governor. How much do you like a race where that’s your choice? Beats voting in Pennsylvania, I can tell you that. Jan Brewer signed a constitutional carry bill into law, and the other guy is on the NRA Board. Maybe I can get used to 110 in the shade!
I Thought PLCAA Was Going to Stop This?
Gun control groups told us if we passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that the gun industry would have blanket immunity from lawsuits. If that’s the case, I don’t know how this is happening.
Mass GOP Chair Condemns New Gun Control Proposals
It’s good to see that the Republican Party in Massachusetts still hasn’t abandoned gun owners. The New Jersey GOP has for a while. I think their last chairman recognized the problem, but I’m not sure the party is moving far enough, fast enough. I don’t expect much from Governor Christie, as he has much bigger fish to fry at this point, unfortunately.
Friday Fun Fly: MiG-21 Fishbed
I was inspired by this story of an aviator who had his wings clipped by the FAA for buzzing a beach, so low it took out a few fishing rods. One of the great things about X-Plane is being able to do things that the FAA would normally frown on, such as buzzing a beach, or, I don’t know, flying supersonic under the Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston with a MiG-21 Fishbed:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wiZJNmmJ1Y[/youtube]
It took me a few tries to get it under. The nearby bridges make it difficult. But I managed to do it without crashing the plane. If you want to see a non-pixelated version, download the m4v here. This particular model is painted up in the colors of the Croation Air Force, which is still an operator of the Fishbed. The MiG-21 is one ugly plane, but it’s easy to fly for a fighter. It’ll take quite a bit of abuse, and it takes some work to push it over the envelope. In contrast, every time I try to fly the F-22 in X-Plane I push it too far and it undergoes catastrophic failure. The MiG is a lot more fun to fly. X-Plane is a really great product with a large community of people contributing to it. You can even join a virtual airline and fly regularly scheduled flights in the VATSIM world if you’re up to it. I’m still working my way up to flying in the VATSIM world with the X-Plane version of the Boeing 737. Let me tell you, we’ve come a long way from this.
And no, FTC, I’m not promoting X-Plane for any other reason than the fact that it’s a lot of fun and a great community. For those of us who are aviation enthusiasts who spend too much money on guns an ammunition to be able to afford a plane, it’s a fun, cheap hobby. Well, for most of us anyway.
Top Shot Commentary from an Archer
A few other gun blogs have already linked this commentary on the archery aspects of last Sunday’s top shot, but it’s well worth a read if you haven’t already seen it.