[Sambolijah]

I've read and heard in the news lately that the Utah CCW permit is probably the most sought after permit in the country. Kinda makes ya swell with pride .

Lets hope the issue of the overworked folks at BCI is resolved, but lets also hope the Legislature doesn't muff it up. I think a slight raise in non-res permit costs would be in order, as long as that extra money will go directly to that office who processes the paperwork.

Thoughts or ideas?

 

[Mr. Magnum]

They talked about this a couple weeks ago on NRA news.

The licence fees are dumped into the general fund & BCI is allotted it's funding by the legislature.

I can't remember the exact #'s but licences are generating something like four times more money than BCI is being given to operate. Thus, there is no reason to increase fees at all. In fact BCI could be given twice what they get now so they could hire the extra people they need, the current application fee could be nearly halved & still make a slight profit.

 

[rotten_newbie]

Did you all see the new Concealed Carry Weapons Program (CCW) Fact Sheet â€" Sept 2006 published by BCI?

I think they should definitely raise the out-of-state fee. I'll bet they could double it and still get about the same amount of people applying. Of course, us in-state citizens should have the lower fee because we're not the ones causing the burden.

 

[concealedutah]

Did you all see the new Concealed Carry Weapons Program (CCW) Fact Sheet â€" Sept 2006 published by BCI?

I think they should definitely raise the out-of-state fee. I'll bet they could double it and still get about the same amount of people applying. Of course, us in-state citizens should have the lower fee because we're not the ones causing the burden.

The out of staters aren't causing ANY problems. The fact that the BCI isn't getting the funding for services they provide is the problem. Why should anyone, in-state or out, pay more than they need to? Lets fix the problem and ditch the $$ signs. This non-res $$ thing is a really bad presidence. Why are you buying the media hype put out there to curb CFP? The Right to bear arms should not be for sale.

The Permit is a compromise already. Charging more to non residents will not help our state one bit, and will greatly hurt our cause. Lets fix what is broke and leave alone what is not.

 

[UtahRSO]

Concealedutah is correct. The BCI just needs adequate funding. The problem is that the BCI's budget for the issuing/handling of Concealed Firearms Permits is not tied to activity. In other words, BCI doesn't get the money that is paid for permits, it just goes into the state general fund. Then BCI then gets a budget, and it is inadequate for the number of permits they must issue. That's the real problem.

 

[rotten_newbie]

Umm...Didn't you guys even look at the graphs? Even if they kept all the cash from permits, they would still be operating at a loss. More funding means more tax.

I also don't think it's Utah's (i.e. my tax dollar's) responsibility to give the rest of the nation CFPs. Since over half of the CFP's are out of state and since the workload is causing CFP's to be delivered over the mandated 60 days, then there should be a higher price paid by out of staters. This will help curb the supply-demand, restore the turn around time to an acceptable period, and solve the budget problem.

 

[UtahRSO]

What you're saying (about raising the fee for out-of-staters) would only work if the extra funds came to BCI, or if BCI's budget was increased. If the additional fees just went into the state's general fund, as is the case now, BCI would still be under-staffed, and the permits wouldn't come out any faster.

As I said, the main problem is that BCI's budget isn't tied to the number of permits issued.

 

[Sambolijah]

I've got somewhat of an idea.

Utah should allow concealed carry WITHOUT a permit.

That would reduce, a little, the number of permit seekers within the state, while still allowing you to exercise a RIGHT.

 

[blackpuma]

Now, now, that would be the right thing to do.

We can't have any of that. :roll: