A FAQ And Site Guide (yay, finally!)

Version 1.1, 7/11/02 by Jim March (who else?)

THE BIG CCW STATISTICS MAP IS
AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!
It's one hell of a research tool, utterly unique...
added 7/11/02

Much of what's on my site requires:

- click icon for free reader

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Where do I go for info on applying under the current system?

What do I do if I’ve been denied?

How can I convince my local politicians to reform their handling of CCW?

Jim, did you sue over this stuff?

What else is on the site?

THE BIG CCW STATISTICS MAP - research tool, utterly unique...

This is a specialized pro-self-defense website, devoted to reforming the California system for the issuance of “Carry Concealed Weapons” (CCW) permits.

California’s system is one of the few states still using the “discretionary system”.  That system just plain sucks.  It’s founded in racism, maintained through illegality, racism and corruption.  33 states at present allow widespread legal civilian self defense, on a non-crony basis; in 32 cases via a "shall issue" CCW system - if you meet the backgrgound check and training requirements, you WILL score.  (In Vermont, there's no prior permission needed to pack concealed, and they have one of the lowest murder rates in the US - every crook ran screaming years ago.)

Shall-issue is where we need to take California.

The primary mission of this site at present is to expose exactly HOW the system sucks, with in-depth investigative reporting.  The results are being compiled into the “Expose Project”, a collection of reports on exactly how CCW issuance misconduct happens, in California and elsewhere.  This site contains the finest collection of exposes of that sort anywhere, some available nowhere else.  We also have legal research on the issue, with attorney Bob Beauchamp’s formal legal opinion on CCW practices, and my article on using the existence of racism in the system to go into court with a minority plaintiff and get the entire carry ban, or the worst discretionary parts of it, junked statewide through a single Fed-court lawsuit.  (This article also contains shocking info and links into the racist origin of this sort of law and California’s system in particular, and hence replaces the old "History" section that used to be on my site.)  These reports are useful for any type of gun law reform, whether it’s supporting pro-gun candidates, initiative efforts, local or state-level lobbying, whatever.  Even if you're a "hardline constitutionalist" who doesn't believe in CCW at all, and I respect that view, showing that California's system is an utter disaster is politically useful.

I also talk in depth on how to fix it - I believe the courts will prove to be the solution, although that's not the only possible path.

Two of the articles so far in the Expose Project detail the involvement of the California Attorney General’s office (and the state DOJ) in concealing evidence of CCW issuance malpractice on the part of local agencies.  It’s a long story, part one and part two are linked here.

I have the current application form online; my copy is via a state DOJ internal source and is better than another one floating around apparently created by a rural Sheriff’s office (Calaveras County?).  You can actually fill it out on-screen and print it as long as you have Acrobat Reader 4.0 or better.  (If that feature doesn't work, no sweat, just print it and hand-print or use a typewriter.)

Penal Codes 12050-54 cover the issuance rules; my copy is better than the one in the state archives.

Dennis Kennedy is a CCW instructor in SoCal who wrote a “guide to good cause statements” – like myself, he offers free consulting on the issue by Email (his EMail link is inside the guide).

I also recommend reading the Beauchamp legal opinion before applying.

Do some “basic intelligence gathering” – local gun shop owners/managers will have some clue as to how the CCW system is being managed locally.  And see if I’ve got any info on your jurisdiction in the “Expose Project” files yet.  Drop me and/or Dennis Kennedy a line, we’ll do our best to fill you in but we won’t know how every jurisdiction works.

If the overall feedback you get is that your local top cop is “pro-CCW”, that’s great, but you still want to craft as detailed (yet honest!) a “good cause statement” as you can come up with short of lying.  Even if the guy is so good he’ll accept “because I believe in my 2nd Amendment rights” as your “good cause”, don’t do that.  You need to make sure that if an anti-gun competitor or media flunky looks through your agency’s CCW data sometime down the road, he doesn’t take too much “political flak” over issuing to you.  Top cops who believe in CCW are rare – PROTECT them by coming up with at least decent “good cause statements”.

You must figure out if you’re dealing with a real anti-gun “enemy” or not.  In an urban area, that’s probably the case.  If it is, hit ‘em with a PRAR, an official request for data on who else is getting issued.  You have a right to that, to find out if you were treated in line with equal protection principles.  You probably weren’t.  If you’re a minority, and you even suspect that a white dude in similar circumstances would score in your jurisdiction, you probably ain’t imagining things.  Racism is rampant in the system, that was the original 1923 design.  EMAIL ME.  Please.

Basically, if it’s a really moronically “liberal” (read: socialist bordering on flat-out commie) area like Berkeley, San Francisco, West Hollywood, etc, forget it – at least until we really BUST one of these clowns in court, either criminally for corruption or in civil court over equal protection.

In-between areas, speak to your top cop personally first,  then go to your County Board of Supes or City Council.  Explain that pro-self-defense people are seeing and complaining about all kinds of rottenness in CCW issuance, bring copies of some of the more twisted reports such as Oakland, Marin and the Sacramento Letter in the Expose Project files, bring the Beauchamp report, and basically explain that the only method of ensuring a lack of equal protection problems is to go to “shall issue”, setting up objective standards and then sticking with them.

I also have a GREAT collection of newspaper articles from shall-issue states, all basically saying “gee wiz, all these armed people and none of ‘em are going nutso, who’da thunk it?”  Silly liberals.

Heh.  Ya, twice.  First time in state court, against Sheriff Rupf of Contra Costa County.  Net result: Rupf was forced (really by his own lawyers early in the case) to hand out applications and allow people to apply.  The Judge said that until I actually applied on paper and got denied, I didn’t have “standing” to complain about the other issues, effectively allowing Rupf’s admitted illegality in withholding apps to delay me.

The second was in Fed court, a flat-out loss in summary judgment.  Basically, without a minority plaintiff or co-plaintiff, I wouldn’t have been allowed to discuss the fairly obvious racial implications of my Sheriff “blocking” CCW access to specific high-minority towns, where I lived.  So without being able to raise the court scrutiny of the issue to “strict scrutiny”, the Judge felt I would have crashed and burned.  See also “A Practical Guide To Race And Gun Control”, which explains how we’re going to try again…I have to chalk up both initial cases as learning experiences (sigh) but number three is coming <grin>.

The “MMM Chronicles”, in which myself and another local activist just flat-out destroyed a national-level gun control organization.  Great fun, even better PR.

My knife page – a detailed look at California knife law, and a buyer’s guide to eight of my favorite folding combat knives.  Hey, if we can’t carry guns…

The story of how I got started in all this, including the death threats that made me seek CCW in the first place (and get royally screwed).  Long graphics load times, worth it because this is the wildest and best-documented police abuse story on the web.

Pictures of (and info on) my potentially CCW-able guns.

Info on how to get on a statewide gun-rights mailing list – HIGHLY recommended.  Remember, CCW is just part of the "bigger picture", there's more going on.  You need to keep up!

How to do a complete pre-purchase inspection on a new or used revolver - one of the most popular threads on the Revolver Forum at http://www.thefiringline.com

A compilation of reviews and commentary on upgrade parts for Ruger SA revolvers (SingleSix/Blackhawk/Vaquero/etc.) Really good stuff if you dig "cowboy guns" :).

Original humor/fiction, parody of Star Trek and the Hell's Angels.  Totally off-topic.  Pretty dang funny :).

Back to business, I also have the complete text online for the most critical court cases involving CCW issues, including Salute vs. Pitchess, People vs. Rappard (available nowhere else online so far as I know), CBS vs. Block, Guillory vs. Gates and Hunter vs. Underwood.  You can read them directly, or for better results the Marin County expose in the Expose Project files goes into a lot of detail on the implications of some, the rest are covered in A Practical Guide To Race And Gun Control.

Among other external links, there's a whole new green table on the top level containing some really, REALLY good "cop humor" - written by a very good cop.  You'll laugh till you bust :).

I know, you're going, "Jim, you nut, what the heck is THIS!?".

"This" is the total population of each county, the black percentage, the Latino percentage (all as of 2000), and in 1997 numbers, the TOTAL NUMBER OF CCWS issued in that county, by both the Sheriff and all that county's Police Chiefs.  Sort of a really neat "hardcore research tool".  I'll leave it here for now, and stick it in the FAQ in a couple weeks.  I'm also digging for more current issuance numbers.  Right, it's hairy lookin' but so is this whole issue.  If you want some rough clue how bad your local cop environment is compared to others, this is the only tool of it's kind.

Remember though: it's adding up PD and Sheriff issuance per county.  There were 1,261 permits in LA County, but most would be out of one or two smaller towns.  Sacramento that year had at least 1,100+ issued out of Isleton, those are all gone.