How hard is it to get a handgun permit? (hotels, buy)

[Mr. Chad]

My Maine non resident carry permit came really fast, like less than 2-3 months. The renewal took less than 1 month also.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by retiredtinbender

[/b]


I was hoping they'd do more of the song. Crud. Now I have to find it on youtube or somewhere. What Bangor radio staito does that on Thanksgiving? KIT?

GEEZ , Tin, now we've shown them all how old we are!

[retiredtinbender]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

GEEZ , Tin, now we've shown them all how old we are!

When you're as cool as us, age is no problem.

[tatans]

Can anyone tell me the difference between a concealed weapon and a gun on your hip? What could possibly be the difference? You are carrying a gun whether you can see it or not. do you have to get a different permit for each weapon, one concealed and one not? - - - mystified

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by tatans

Can anyone tell me the difference between a concealed weapon and a gun on your hip? What could possibly be the difference? You are carrying a gun whether you can see it or not. do you have to get a different permit for each weapon, one concealed and one not? - - - mystified

One is hidden; the other is not hidden.

To hide a firearm on your person requires a permit.

To Open Carry does not require a permit.

[slyfox2]

I'm not sure that I could get away with wearing a gun on my hip in Ellsworth or on Mount Desert Island unless I was also wearing some kind of uniform that made me look like a security guard or something. It would be NOT too hard to come up with a gray shirt and black pants. But I think I might be judged a public nuisance by the cops after some citizen reported some guy carrying a gun in some place like McDonald's.

I know that you can, but I don't think that in the populous areas that you really can.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

It is legal throughout Maine to carry concealed provided we have permits. Those with permits don't tend to carry openly because some citizens unfamiliar with the rights of responsible citizens become distressed when they see freedom exercised.

That said, people with permits walk among us all day every day. It is the responsible thing to do. There are lots of slogans regarding firearms ownership and carrting. The simple fact is that Maine is bigger than the other five New England states combined. We have fewer people than the poulation of Philadelphia. We have a very small nu,mber of law enforcement personnel, state, county and local. Simple geography makes the average response time of law enforcement quite long as compared with, say, Phuiladelphia.

It is the responsibility of law enforcement to arrest criminals after they commit crimes. It is the responsibility of citizens to prevent crimes in the first place. By the way, crimes are not committed by the men and ladies who have concealed weapon permits.

[Mr. Chad]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

I'm not sure that I could get away with wearing a gun on my hip in Ellsworth or on Mount Desert Island unless I was also wearing some kind of uniform that made me look like a security guard or something. It would be NOT too hard to come up with a gray shirt and black pants. But I think I might be judged a public nuisance by the cops after some citizen reported some guy carrying a gun in some place like McDonald's.

I know that you can, but I don't think that in the populous areas that you really can.

I prefer to conceal carry in public..... I'll only open carry at the range with my shooting buddies.

[Zymer]

The whole idea of having to get a permit is stupid. Criminals, who by definition do not obey the laws, get guns and carry them, typically hidden. The law requiring a permit hinders them not in the least. It is only the law-abiding citizens who are inconvenienced by this requirement.

I agree whole-heartedly with Northern Maine Land Man's comment. As far as I am concerned, every law abiding citizen should be allowed to carry a gun, hidden or not, without the need for a 'permit'. Everyone, especially the cops***, should simply assume that any person they see is likely to be armed. Armed citizens have a better chance of stopping a crime in progress (or even stopping it before it really gets started) than cops do. Cops are merely the 'clean-up detail' who arrive on the scene *after* everything is said and done, take reports and then, maybe...eventually...catch up with the perpetrators and arrest them, and (re)introduce them to the system which often has a revolving door and [mostly] meaningless penalties (suspended sentences, 'time served', concurrent sentences, probation, etc.).

My characterization of cops as a 'clean-up detail' is not a baseless opinion, it comes from many years of working and training together with 'law enforcement' personnel from every level, federal to local. In fact, nearly every cop I have worked or talked with agrees with it and admits that this is how he/she feels as well. It was a cop who first made this characterization to me.

Despite the logo "To Protect and Serve" seen on some police vehicles, in every case (that I know of) where a citizen has sought legal remedies on the basis that the police failed to protect him/her, the courts have ruled that the police have no duty to protect the citizens. Who, then, *is* responsible? The answer, of course, is that it is the citizens' own duty to protect themselves.

As an armed citizen I have, on a number of occasions, successfully defended myself against [attempted] crimes, as well as intervening and rescuing other [unarmed] citizens who were being victimized. As far as I know, none of these cases were reported and therefore are not counted in the statistics that many people use as a basis for asserting the need for 'gun control'. I also feel that I am justified in believing that other armed citizens who successfully use a firearm to defend themselves rarely, if ever, file a 'report' that they have done so except perhaps in the event where that defense results in an injury or death where reporting the act becomes unavoidable. (In my own cases, it was my determination that since the event ended in my favor, reporting it would [at the very least] cause me an unacceptable loss of my time and possibly even result in *my* being detained and subjected to undeserved harrassment. I have no doubt that there are many others who have made the same determination.

***Many people like to use the 2nd Ammendment as the basis for their arguments that they have the right to carry a gun to protect themselves from criminals. While that can, and should, be *one* reason for citizens to be armed, the primary motive for including this as an enumerated right by the Founding Fathers is to serve as one of the checks and balances against an overzealous government, including 'police' agencies, no less important (perhaps even *more* important, given the priority placed on it) than the other enumerated rights of legal representation, protection from unwarranted search and siezure, protection from self-incrimination, and a *fair* trial by a jury of one's peers.

I may occasionally be seen with a pistol or revolver hanging off my hip and there is a loaded Winchester hanging on the wall, but frankly, they are mostly for the four-legged animals that may come around, like the pack of coyotes that woke me this morning, fighting outside my front door over something that they had killed or for the bears that might be tempted to snack on my beehives. I generally don't feel the same 'need' to pack a pistol on a daily basis as I did when I lived and worked near/in Boston.

[slyfox2]

The biggest problem I have with citizens carrying guns is that they are really not trained to use the weapon in a tense situation. Criminals don't really care much, or at least they don't think that far ahead about not wanting to hurt people.

But armed citizens usually do want to safeguard people. Problem is that in an untrained situation, most citizens carrying guns will be too scared or freaked to be able to hit the broad side of a barn if they actually do have to shoot it. And thus, untrained citizens are far more likely to either injure the wrong person, get themselves shot, or cause the criminal to shoot someone else. It was for this reason that I tried to buy a laser sight for my .357 mag. I knew I would need the laser to see where I should be shooting.

This is my biggest problem with concealed carry. Even the training that cops get doesn't guarantee that they will not do something really dumb, but its a greater assurance that they won't. IMO, people who want to carry concealed need to take a full course of training in using a concealed weapon, in the laws regarding its use in the state they live in, and in field training for using it. And they should have an update on this training every year.

Saying this, I used to have a concealed carry permit, and I currently own two weapons, one of which is a handgun. The RIGHT to carry concealed should be tempered by the responsibility to get trained to use a concealed weapon in the extremely scary and tense situation for which one carries concealed. Anyone who thinks this is not true is deluded, IMO.

I used to think that I would have the intelligence to not go into a burning house. But a house burned down in my neighborhood and a kid was killed in it. By the time I got there the firemen were already on the scene but I was close enough to their arrival, that at moment I knew if they had not been there I would have without a doubt gone into a burning building after the kid without proper breathing gear and probably died in it. Proper training as a fireman would have stopped me from such folly. The experience of that burning house set my adrenalin on edge and I was prepared to take some really stupid actions. I have no doubt that if I was carrying a gun and I was at a robbery where a criminal was threatening another citizen, I would have a real problem restraining myself from doing something inappropriate or even stupid that might get us both shot or killed. Training would prevent something like that.