GRNC Alert 06-15-15 (2): Sheriffs Stonewall on Their Own Report

Sheriff report shows NICS checks are superior to our archaic permit system at keeping criminals from getting guns. . . 

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA) has been the leading opponent of House Bill 562, in particular its repeal of North Carolina’s Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit (PPP) system. Their objections have been a moving target as they first claimed sheriffs “know” their constituents and “know” who is unfit to get a permit; then they claimed the National Instant Background Check System is inadequate to conduct criminal background checks (although in truth most sheriffs conduct only a NICS check prior to issuing a permit); finally, they shopped the argument that relying on NICS for point-of-purchase checks would somehow undermine the sheriff and empower the federal government – an argument rendered ridiculous if you understand that sheriffs are required by law to do NICS checks prior to issuing purchase permits.

Sheriffs’ own report an indictment of the system
So imagine our surprise when we discovered that the NCSA had quietly shelved its own report describing what complete chaos the pistol purchase permit system is in, and how many permits might currently be held by criminals. Under HB 937, passed in 2013, sheriffs were required to develop a report indicating how many disqualified persons still held permits which are valid for 5 years and allow them to bypass background checks via NICS. They were also required to revoke invalid permits. To see the NCSA report, CLICK HERE (or go to: http://grnc.org/https://grnc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NCSA-PPP-Revocation-Report-2014-FINAL.pdf). 

Some highlights from the NCSA report with most in sheriffs’ own words:

• “[NICS] reports included 165 or 23.5% of permits being subject to revocation in Camden County and 35,488 or 38% of permits being subject to revocation in Mecklenburg County.”

• “…sheriffs’ offices [submitted] 674,806 permits for review representing 344,338 different permit holders. CJLEADS returned 26,637 permits to sheriffs as subject to revocation due to an event or condition that occurred subsequent to the issuance of the permit that would have disqualified the individual from receiving a pistol purchase permit at application.” [That rate is about 4%, or four times higher than NICS, suggesting that the PPP system is *inferior* to NICS at preventing criminals from getting guns.]

• “Sheriffs have reported revoking 5,255 permits from 2,447permittees as a result of the background check and review process through April 25, 2014. However, it should be noted that a sheriff has no way of knowing if a permit has been used since issuance.” [Translation: Perhaps only ¼ of 26,637 invalid permits were “revoked,” leaving potentially 22,000+ criminals in possession of permits and able to bypass background checks.]

• “Sheriffs’ offices are staffed to review and process Pistol Purchase Permit applications and not to conduct periodic reviews of active permits…”

• “Conducting an ongoing manual case by case review of 289 permits in Tyrrell County or 93,486 permits in Mecklenburg County is nearly impossible.” [So much for NCSA’s argument that sheriffs “know” who in their counties should have permits. If they can’t manually check them now, how can they do so before issuance?]

• “Several sheriffs’ offices had over 40% of their permits reported subject to revocation in the NICS report.”

• “Sheriffs’ offices cannot account for permits claimed to be ‘lost’…”

• “Gun dealers do not know if a permit has been revoked…”
  

What the NCSA report means
While the sheriffs will undoubtedly claim that inconsistencies of data matching contributed to high rates of permits being reported for revocation, even the “best” possible number of 5,255 permits “revoked” means 5,255 criminals had (or have) guns under the system.

By the way, did we mention that “revocation” means only that the sheriff issued a revocation letter? If the criminal says, “The dog ate my permit,” they have no recourse and that criminal may still use that slip of paper to bypass a computerized background check.

The bottom line is that NICS checks are superior to our archaic permit system at keeping criminals from getting guns.

Adding insult to injury…

Before the NCSA apparently instructed sheriffs to stonewall on the cost of issuing each pistol purchase permit, Forsyth County was kind enough to give the following estimate: $50.54 for each pistol purchase permit issued, meaning a waste of taxpayer dollars of $311,781.26 for just one county. Multiply that by 100 counties, and the evidence is compelling that millions of dollars of your money is being wasted to shore up a system that lets criminals get guns while obstructing the law-abiding from doing so.

By the way, did we mention that Forsyth reports denying nearly 10% of permits applied for, with most presumably under the “good moral character” loophole? That rate of denial is roughly 10 times higher than NICS and once again suggests that good guys are being denied guns while bad guys are getting them.