Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones may send California gun prohibitionists into orbit over his Tuesday announcement that his agency will ease the process for obtaining a concealed carry permit.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the sheriff’s office made the announcement via a press release. The idea is to “cut down paperwork and workload for Sheriff’s Department staff, who are charged with processing the permit applications.”
California is one of the tougher states for getting a carry permit, but apparently no longer in Sacramento County. According to the Sheriff’s Department bulletin, applicants “will now submit initial paperwork and payment online through a web-based application.”
Applicants will only have to make one office visit rather than two, and they can monitor the progress of their applications online.
“CCW permit holders will now be issued a hard plastic card that will be easily identifiable as a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department CCW permit,” the agency said. “The new permit will also have the holder’s photograph prominently displayed, increasing both durability and security of the permit.”
The newspaper reported that about one in every 135 adults living in Sacramento County is now licensed to carry. About 8,000 permits have been issued since Jones became sheriff in 2011. However, the sheriff is not shy about cracking down on people who break the rules.
Three months ago, the Sacramento Bee reported that Jones had revoked about 150 permits since February “for a variety of reasons, including arrests and other contact with law enforcement that didn’t lead to arrest, such as making threats or misusing a weapon.”
The newspaper added that this is more than any other department in the state.
The sheriff recently lost his bid to replace Democrat Rep. Ami Bera to represent the district in Congress. Jones is a Republican.
The Sacramento Bee reported in September that when Jones first ran for sheriff in 2010 he revealed plans to issue more CCW permits. By the end of 2015, Sacramento County had the third highest number of active permits of any county in the state, surpassed only by Orange and Fresno counties.
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