The General said:
At $50 per application, SLED is loosing money. Eventually, they will have to cut staff even more which means longer delays. At $75, they would just about break even. They are also considering extending the permit to 5-years (up from the current 4).
-Mike
Government doesn't make money running polling places, zoning lots for churches or synagogues, providing phone lines in the Capital for people to speak to their State Senators and petition the government for redress of grievances, providing free lawyers for the accused, or otherwise enabling people to exercise a specifically enumerated constitutional right. The purpose of government isn't to make money -- it is to effectively secure and protect the natural rights of the people.
CCW permits should not be a "money maker" or even break even for the state financially. They should drop the fee to zero dollars, and let the funds for SLED come out of the general fund. Heck, they should give people who can show a CCW permit, a Red Cross First Aid card, and/or a CERT program certificate a tax deduction, and let people deduct a militia appropriate weapon and ammunition from their taxable income each year too with a rebate for the sales tax.
There is
no reason for the delay to exceed 90 days. At 90 days SLED
must issue the permit, regardless of the status of their internal process. They could cut their staff to zero and just automatically issue permits after a three month delay for all I care. In fact the legislature should cut that timeline to 30 days or less. A right delayed is a right denied.
