The Unforgiving Minute

Yeah, well… I haven’t had anything gun-related to write about lately. There was the Parker decision, which was huge, but everyone else covered it at length and in great detail, and the one point I was going to make got swiped out from under me.

There’s some possible good news on the Michigan gun-rights front, though. HB4490 would slightly de-suckify (but not entirely dispose of) Michigan’s unconstitutional (under both the national and state Constitutions) handgun licensing scheme.

As things stand now, if you want to buy a handgun you have to go to your local PD to get a Permit to Purchase. This requires a background check and a gun-safety quiz. You then have ten (10) days to actually buy the handgun. Once you buy it, you have another ten (10) days to take it back to your local PD for a “Safety Inspection.”

Funny thing about that, they don’t actually conduct any sort of examination that evaluates the safety of said firearm, but they do make note of all your personal info, along with the make, model, serial number, and other details of the handgun. That info is kept on file at the local PD and also entered into a State Police database. Gee, kinda looks like REGISTRATION, rather than a safety inspection, doesn’t it? Funny how that works.

If you have a concealed-carry license, you get to skip the Permit to Purchase bit, but still have to go to the PD within ten days to complete the Safety Inspection registration.

The whole process is a gigantic pain in the ass, particularly since a lot of PDs like to play cute little games about the whole process, along the lines of “Oh, we only issue permits on the 7th Friday of months that end in Q.”

Anyways, HB4490 would do away with the Safety Inspection registration process but keep the Permit to Purchase requirement. The existing Safety Inspection registration database would apparently also be destroyed. It’s a step in the right direction, albeit a small one.