Being force by our legal system to obtain a CCW for the safety of my wife and myself, I ordered a Beretta Nano from a local gun shop I had done business with 4 years ago. Then, I purchased a 20 gauge pump shotgun for home defense. Having, at the time, recently retired, I was spending a lot of time at home and noticed that the neighborhood up north where I formerly lived was beginning to run down. That becomes obvious when several police cars pull up at a neighbors house and surround it, guns drawn. And they do it again, later, at another house down the block. Twenty eight years at that address and suddenly I'm in a war zone?
To bring home the shotgun I had purchased all I had to do was supply my name, address and social security number. In about 20 minutes I was cleared by the FBI to complete the purchase and take the shotgun home.
I ordered the Beretta Nano on line last Friday and was informed by phone call this afternoon at 1:30PM that it had arrived. "Anything I need to bring?", I asked, expecting him to just say something like "two forms of ID and your SSN".
His response:
"Your driver's license and your Lancaster county permit to purchase a handgun".
"What? I've heard of the CCW permit, which is what I working on getting, but I never read or heard of Lancaster county requiring a permit to purchase a handgun."
"You'll have to have one before you can buy your gun. And, you'll have to fill out the exact same form here, again, when you pick up your gun."
I wouldn't be surprised to learn, when I arrive at the gun shop to pick up my weapon, that I need a City of Lincoln purchase permit as well.
Well, I checked out the requirements of the Lancaster County Permit to Purchase a handgun. My driver's license, SSN and proof of my current address. Opps! We sold our house 6 weeks ago and moved to our new location in South Lincoln. My driver's license still has my old address on it. Down to the DMV. Luckily, they issued a temporary DL with the new address on it and, luckily, Lancaster county accepted it as proof of my address. I paid my $5 and the kind lady said I was good to go. My permit would be sent out within 72 hours and I should get it after the US mule delivers it to my mail box. "How long in total?" "About 5 to 7 days."
So, my Beretta will be setting down at the gun shop for a week or more. Meanwhile, I am assuming that I can rent a handgun and buy some ammo to use for the range part of the CCW class I plan to take this weekend. Even so, if I pass the CCW test (all that is required is 70%, or 21 out of 30 questions --- strange -- the exact score I got on my FAA single engine land pilot exam) I may still have to wait 45 days to get possession of my CCW permit.
Fortunately, a Judge in Omaha put a "temporary" hold on the planned meeting of the Board of Pardons so they didn't meet today to commute any prisoners sentences, and they won't be meeting on the 5th. But, I suspect that political forces will find a way to climb over the judge's restraining order and began the commutations. I am hoping that it may take at least a month or two. By then perhaps I will be able to CC.
In all of this I was struck by the meaning of the phrase " ... shall not be infringed", and how it doesn't mean anything anymore.
