Back at the beginning of last November, I bought a handgun and applied to the state of New Jersey for permission to take it home. After two fees and two and a half months, the State Police finished their background check which, going by how long it took, must have been heroically thorough. I got the call this morning that my pistol permit was ready and (as I don't work on Mondays) swung by the PD to pick it up, and from there on to the sporting goods store to get my new firearm. I gave the clerk my new pistol permit, my NJ Firearms ID (which required another months-long background check to get), and my receipt for the purchase.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the federally-required "instant" background check system is closed for the holiday. So, because background check number three couldn't be completed, my new firearm is sleeping in the gun shop's safe for one more night.
Sorry, you can't exercise a Constitutionally protected civil right because it's Martin Luther King day.
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Wow, Ironic! Both of my favotire gunshops are closed Sunday and Monday, I wouldn't have noticed.
ReplyDeleteSo is the pistol in question your LCP?
Isn't ironic that a cooling off period can get a person so steamed??
ReplyDeleteThat's the one. It's no fun to shoot, but that's not really what it's made to do, is it?
ReplyDeleteI work five minutes from the shop, so it's no huge hassle to pick it up tomorrow. The only real issue is that I was planning to take it to the range for a test drive in the rest of my day off. Ah, well. This way I'll get more done around the house.
Bob, only in New Jersey could anybody ever think a 2.5 month wait was a "cooling off" period. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've wondered about the background check system as practiced by NJSP ever since my wife and I each bought a pistol, more or less simultaneously at the same store, each on our own permits that had the same f'ing SBI# on them (which matched the SBI# on our FID cards, admittedly). You'd have thought someone would have raised a flag when one or the other of us didn't match the file for that number...
ReplyDelete(Eventually got a new SBI# on one card when we did the address change - I don't recall who got the new number)
Huh. Y'know, before leaving the PD with my permits, I checked them to make sure the SBI number matched. It seemed silly, because I figured nobody'd ever actually look at it. But then, at the point of sale, the clerk dutifully copied down the number.
ReplyDeleteThat's Jersey for ya. laws go into effect with no procedure for following them, but you'd damn well better dot all the Is and cross all the Ts on your third redundant background check!