Am I Reading This Correctly?

Scroll to the bottom of this laundry list of General Assembly accomplishments of the 2007 session. It looks like that, in the “Castle Doctrine” bill that passed, that removed criminal and civil penalties for using deadly force for self-defense in one’s own home, it also looks like they repealed the silly “permit to purchase” requirement for handguns in Missouri.

If that’s true, then the process to purchase a handgun in Missouri will be simply filling out the form for a instant background check, and the wait will be no longer than about one day, instead of the five- to seven-day wait that certain jurisdictions in this state made you go through.

The “permit to purchase” system, legally known as “Permit to Transfer a Concealable Firearm,” has existed in Missouri for quite a long time, and is not the same as a permit to carry a concealed weapon; the paperwork makes that clear. It applied to those who wanted for handgun purchases, loans and gifts. And it does not apply to long guns.

Here’s the process:

(1) One has to agree in principle with a gun dealer or an individual on the handgun that one wants to purchase.

(2) Go to the county sheriff’s office (or the County Police Headquarters in St. Louis County), and get the “Permit to Transfer” forms.

(3) Take the forms and yourself back to the seller.

(4) You fill out your half, the seller fills out his or hers, which includes serial number of the gun, make, model, caliber, etc., not to mention personal information about yourself and the seller.

(5) You take the paperwork back to the county sheriff’s office.

(6) Wait five business days, probably more in certain jurisdictions.

(7) Return to the sheriff’s office, and if you passed the background check, your permit will have been approved.

(8) Take the approved paperwork back to the dealer, and then you can legally take possession of the gun. You keep a copy, the dealer keeps a copy, and the sheriff’s office keeps a copy.

(Meanwhile, if you wanted to make an illicit purchase, just go to the wrong part of town and throw down fifty or a hundred bucks.)

If you want a conceal-carry permit, that’s a whole other universe, which involves another background check on you, and up to a 45-day waiting period, not to mention the safety training, the cost of that, the cost of the permit, and the paperwork.

If SB 62 does repeal the “Permit to Transfer” scheme, it says nothing about changing the CCW permit process. Nor does it seem to address the double background-check issue for purchasing the handgun then getting the CCW permit; legally speaking, the check has to be done both times, but I would imagine that in rural Missouri counties, the sheriff only required the first one, which was good enough for him for both processes, wink wink. Of course, anti-gun jurisdictions can and do make you get both background checks. Now that the “Permit to Transfer” system seems to be a thing of the past, both checks will be required everywhere without exception, because the “instant check” system for gun purchases is run by the Federal ATF agency.

Overall, I’m not knocking it. Half the headache has been repealed.