Could the 2nd Amendment Return to Orange County?

California has some of the toughest concealed carry laws in the country. We are a "may issue" state, meaning it's completely up to the local sheriff whether permits will be issued and what the process and requirements will be. I'm not aware of any sheriff in the state that issues permits in significant numbers. They've all drunk the gun control Kool-Aid and fallen for the mistaken belief that you reduce violence by keeping guns away from law-abiding citizens.

In "shall issue" states local sheriff's are required to issue permits to anyone who qualifies, regardless of other factors. We have a guy running for Sheriff in Orange County, Bill Hunt, who believes in returning some sanity to the process in this county. He was interviewed by Friends for Fullerton's Future:

We had some questions about concealed weapons permits (CCW’s) for the man whose slogan has been “The Sheriff should be in the business of protecting people’s rights, not restricting them.”

We asked Hunt how his stance was different from his opponent’s. Hunt told us that he is a constitutionalist and believes that the current system lends itself to corruption. Hunt believes that statistics from than 39 “Shall Issue” states are proof that CCW’s lower crime rates. Further, he believes that an armed citizenry will help keep the peace at a time when the Sheriff’s Department is looking to lay off sworn deputies.

We also asked Hunt to lay out the process that a permit applicant can expect if he is elected Sheriff. Hunt said, “If we have someone come in and they are a range owner and maybe they have one of these reciprocal CCW’s that’s good in thirteen states, and they’re in good standing in those states, then I think we need to shorten up that process. We need to verify that the permit is legitimate and have had backgrounds on them, and then do an updated background to make sure there have been no problems in the interim. Then we check their training. If they’re proficient, we have our range master check them out. If they’re proficient, sign them off. If it’s a new person with no current CCW then we need to do the full background check, send them through the full NRA familiarization course, and get them through the process!”

That's exactly correct. The approach taken by previous Sheriff's involved issuing permits to political allies and contributors while denying them to just about anyone else, regardless of need. It shouldn't be like that.

He also has a quote that's pretty good:

“When seconds count, cops are minutes away!” – Bill Hunt

Just ask the folks at the Luby's Cafeteria in Texas or the McDonald's in San Ysidro.

Oh wait, you can't. They're dead.