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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

A little gun angst

I meant to write something about this yesterday, but the election candidates starting filing through, and I forgot about it. Does this worry anybody?

Indiana State Police are switching to an online gun permitting system that will bring end to the use of paper applications for those permits.

[. . .]

State police Maj. Mike White said the new electronic system is designed to streamline the application process for applicants and law enforcement agencies.

I generally favor almost all of Indiana's gun provisions. The one that has always bothered me is the availability of a lifetime permit. The chief goal of gun policy should be to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them without impeding the rights of everybody else. The lifetime permit, it seems to me, increases the chances of someone I wouldn't want to see armed walking around with a gun. Make us renew every two or three years just to show we haven't gone off the deep end.

This provision worrries me a little for the same reason. On the one hand, gun owners shouldn't be asked to give up the convenience of online transactions enjoyed by everybody else. On the other, this increases the chances of somebody bent sneaking through the system.

Or am I being anxious for no good reason?

Comments

Lois Marquart
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 10:27am

Not necessarily.  I am anxious about parents being able to have guns in their cars in school parking lots or teachers being allowed to carry guns inside the school.  Nothing can go wrong there.

Larry Morris
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 3:13pm

I would be more worried about the lifetime permit.  I agree, make everyone re-apply every few years to make sure they are still eligible.  We do that here in Texas, and we can do it on-line.  I was upset when they removed the requirement to re-qualify every five years.  Now all you have to do every five years is re-apply, and you can do it on-line.  Also, in Texas, you are allowed to have your gun with you in your vehicle (or on your person in your vehicle) when dropping off your child in the school parking lot.  And, more and more school systems in Texas are allowing teachers and administrators to carry on premises.  The more good guys with guns, the better off we all will be ...

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