Vetting of concealed-carry applicants too weak to trust

[SecularMotion]

How safe does this make you feel? Twelve people certified as concealed carry trainers under Illinois’ new gun law have such extensive criminal backgrounds that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart wants them banned from carrying hidden firearms altogether. One of them was the subject of an order of protection, and police say another threatened to kill a law enforcement officer.

That’s just part of the problem with the new law, approved by the Legislature last summer. There’s no longer any debate that concealed carry is the law of the land, but there’s an excellent argument that it is being carried out in an excessively permissive manner. Combing through a list of 9,349 Cook County residents who have applied since Jan. 5 for five-year concealed carry permits , Sheriff Dart’s office found 300 applicants who have records for domestic violence, gang activity, gun crimes, sex crimes, burglary and other criminal activity. All but five of those applicants were cleared for concealed carry by the Illinois State Police, however, and the grounds for rejection for the five might have been something as benign as not including payment.

We see two problems here. The first is that Dart’s office is the source of most of the objections filed statewide, which suggests that other sheriffs and municipal police departments — who were provided no extra funding to pay for criminal background checks — are failing to dig as deeply as Dart into the background of people applying for concealed carry permits.

The second problem is that even Dart can’t do a truly thorough job because he is prohibited from checking a police database called the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, the nation’s most comprehensive listing of arrest records. According to the State Police, that’s because LEADS is to be used only for criminal justice purposes, and the FBI considers concealed carry permits to be an administrative matter.

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/25507823-474/vetting-of-concealed-carry-applicants-too-weak-to-trust.html

[gejohnston]

1. Oh please

All this hysterical fool has to do is look at the other states and see for himself that there is no blood in the streets.
Notice those are arrests, not convictions. Police arrest the wrong person, later the right person is convicted when found, it still goes on a record that you have been arrested.
Dart doesn't want concealed carry at all and he is whinning and probably lying.

[DonP]

3. Dart's pouting for a reason

Last edited Mon Mar 3, 2014, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

He'd rather talk about anything else and not discuss the high profile escapes last year from the jail he's responsible for (bedsheets out a window in broad daylight) or the track record of DUI and D&D arrests for the "special deputies" he's appointed that are allowed to carry.

But mainly he is very miffed that he didn't get the big cash windfall that would have come from a "May Issue" system. Plus he got taken to the woodshed by the head of the Illinois State Police 2 weeks ago and told that he was no different than the other sheriffs in Illinois and had to abide by the same rules.

BTW Dart is a pure politician, elected by the Cook County machine with no law enforcement background or street time. The question has been asked, but not answered; "Where did he get his firearms training to carry?"

An update from the President of the Cook County Bord on how the jails are run by your hero Sheriff Tom Dart.

"As I've said before, the jail is the intersection of racism and poverty." —Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/cook-county-officials-fight-over-jail-crowding/Content?oid=12195364

[rrneck]

2. ...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html

In Miami Gardens, store video catches cops in the act

BY JULIE K. BROWN
[e-mail]

Earl Sampson has been stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens police 258 times in four years.
He’s been searched more than 100 times. And arrested and jailed 56 times.

[Straw Man]

4. Suggestions.

Last edited Mon Mar 3, 2014, 05:11 PM - Edit history (1)

The first is that Dart’s office is the source of most of the objections filed statewide, which suggests that other sheriffs and municipal police departments — who were provided no extra funding to pay for criminal background checks — are failing to dig as deeply as Dart into the background of people applying for concealed carry permits.

Perhaps not. Perhaps it suggests that Cook County -- that's Chicago, folks -- has a particularly large amount of "domestic violence, gang activity, gun crimes, sex crimes, burglary and other criminal activity."

[ileus]

5. I recommend shall issue.