Personal story, losing your 2A rights

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Random 8

Random 8

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We recently got an interesting letter from our local Sheriff. Stated that a routine audit of CC licenses found a disqualifying event in my wife's history. She had 5 days to turn in her CCW in person.

Fortunately we have a very pro-rights Sheriffs department, and they were willing to help us get to the bottom of the issue. Apparently, a county in Indiana where she lived briefly 15 years ago had failed to close a case that was opened for a bad check after she paid all charges and resolved the issue. For 15 years, she has been hunting, shooting with me, and has carried concealed for 10 years. If at any time an issue had come up, she likely would have been charged with prohibited person in posession of a weapon!

How can one know if an old administrative error for a minor charge is haunting their background somewhere, just waiting to come to light at the worst possible moment? Best case you miss out on a good deal on a firearm. Worst case, a routine traffic stop turns into a felony arrest and confiscation of any gun or ammo in your posession!
 
Random 8 said:
We recently got an interesting letter from our local Sheriff. Stated that a routine audit of CC licenses found a disqualifying event in my wife's history. She had 5 days to turn in her CCW in person.

Fortunately we have a very pro-rights Sheriffs department, and they were willing to help us get to the bottom of the issue. Apparently, a county in Indiana where she lived briefly 15 years ago had failed to close a case that was opened for a bad check after she paid all charges and resolved the issue. For 15 years, she has been hunting, shooting with me, and has carried concealed for 10 years. If at any time an issue had come up, she likely would have been charged with prohibited person in posession of a weapon!

How can one know if an old administrative error for a minor charge is haunting their background somewhere, just waiting to come to light at the worst possible moment? Best case you miss out on a good deal on a firearm. Worst case, a routine traffic stop turns into a felony arrest and confiscation of any gun or ammo in your posession!
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go and get a background check, on your own first.

any problems, get them cleared up, THEN go for what you want/need?
 
Where do you get this background check, on your own first?
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The one you got when applying for a carry license should cover it. I don't understand how the OP's wife got a permit in the 1st place if this was on her record. I can only guess that the incident was only added recently, after she was approved.

I know that some jobs require a background check. Teachers have to get one every 5 years and they have to pay for it. They go to the local Sheriff's office, fill out the paperwork, get fingerprinted and pay a fee for the background check. Here in GA the GBI does it. I assume similar agencies in other states would do the same.

If I were interested in finding out for myself I'd start by asking the local Sheriff's office, or ask an attorney.
 
As the case remained "open, at large," it was entered into the Federal system as "fugitive from justice." The same would happen for an out of state parking ticket or similar minor offense if some desk jockey forgot to close the case.

This is how scary universal background and registration is. You can be devoured by the beast with a thousand eyes without even knowing you're on the menu. You don't need to be a violent criminal to become prohibited.
 
In most (all?) states you can go to the local police department and ask for a background check on yourself. For many years the Boy Scouts have required this of every registered adult Scouter, and many churches now require it of volunteers in youth programs.

However, such a check is not a NICS check. I do not know if an FFL can or will run a NICS check on request, without a full 4473 completion.
 
Random 8 said:
As the case remained "open, at large," it was entered into the Federal system as "fugitive from justice." The same would happen for an out of state parking ticket or similar minor offense if some desk jockey forgot to close the case.
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In which case that trip to your favorite vacation spot can be a doozie. Pulled over for 78 in a 70mph zone goes from “slow down and have a good day sir” to a trip downtown followed by extradition, kids being put into temporary custody, expenses of getting your stuff and your family back, then getting your stuff and your family home... it could snowball. And I suspect that there is likely some sort of protection for the state to avoid lawsuits over that tiny mistake that they made that will go about ruining a persons life... again.
 
jmr40 said:
The one you got when applying for a carry license should cover it. I don't understand how the OP's wife got a permit in the 1st place if this was on her record.
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That kind of stuff goes unrecorded, or recorded improperly sometimes. Look at the guy that shot up that Sutherland Springs TX church a few years ago. His record simply never got updated and so he was able to purchase firearms from a dealer even though he was technically a prohibited person.
 
Craig_VA said:
In most (all?) states you can go to the local police department and ask for a background check on yourself.

However, such a check is not a NICS check.
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Are you certain that local departments will not use NICS? How do you know? What do they use instead?

This is information I need for work, so if you have some expertise, please share it.
 
tomj44 said:
Where do you get this background check, on your own first?
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in my state. for a nominal fee of (it was) $5.00, i could walk into the Attorney General's office (DA in some states), pay the fee, and right there, they do a BCI check, which is the very same the police depts get.

that way, if (say) i found a problem, i can get it taken care of ASAP, ......THEN apply for the ccw permit.

i gotta believe that in most states, anyone can get thier own BCI checks as well..??
 
It's not NICS, but you might be able to contact your state's Crime Information Center and get a release of your own records. In AR, for example, you can fill out a records release and pay a $25 fee to get your ACIC records. I don't know that every state is hooked into the NCIC, but I suspect they are. I do know that AR is.
 
pairof44sp said:
Are you certain that local departments will not use NICS? How do you know? What do they use instead?
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I do not know if every state or local law enforcement background check is not NICS, but I do know that Virginia is not. Even if the local system has a NICS feed outbound, I do not know if NICS feeds back into the local or state system. Recall that one of the legitimate criticisms of NICS is that many state, local, and even federal (e.g. US Air Force) criminal records systems fail to keep their inputs to NICS up to date. Further, the report you receive will not say it is from NICS; it will say it is from the specified local system, even if the system includes data imported from NICS.
pairof44sp said:
This is information I need for work, so if you have some expertise, please share it.
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At this stage, it is up to you to call your local police department or state police barracks and ask then how to proceed if you need a background investigation report for employment. Generic commentary like mine in this forum is not enough for what you need.

Good luck!
 
"Apparently, a county in Indiana where she lived briefly 15 years ago had failed to close a case that was opened for a bad check after she paid all charges and resolved the issue."

It may not be what the attorneys would advise, but if you are called in front of a court on any charge make sure to follow-up with the court and get a written disposition of the case stamped by the court and carry it in your glovebox. Doing so has saved me from being hauled off to jail.
 
Robert said:
In many places it's called fraud by check and it is a felony.
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Yep.
Every state will be different, but it can easily become a felony.
In Arkansas, where I am familiar with it, the severity of the charge depends on the amount of the bad check. I suspect there is a graduated scale in most jurisdictions.

Felony starts at $1k here, and gets progressively more serious as the dollar amount hits certain amounts.

If this was 15 years ago, the amount may well have been substantially less than it is today.
 
Three years ago, I had an FBI fingerprint check done on myself. I don't remember the cost?? Maybe $50 and you go to one of the offices contracted with the FBI and have your prints taken and within 15 minutes, I was issued (emailed) a letter from the FBI office in WV stating that no criminal record was found. When applying for a non resident Florida concealed handgun permit, I had to submit fingerprints done by my local sheriff. Luckily, I'm not a fugitive from justice!
 
Random 8 said:
As the case remained "open, at large," it was entered into the Federal system as "fugitive from justice." The same would happen for an out of state parking ticket or similar minor offense if some desk jockey forgot to close the case.

This is how scary universal background and registration is. You can be devoured by the beast with a thousand eyes without even knowing you're on the menu. You don't need to be a violent criminal to become prohibited.
Click to expand...
Minor offenses & parking or other traffic tickets are misdemeanors, and don't show up on a background check. Even if they did, I have never seen a statutory code where someone is prohibited from any license for anything less then a felony, which is the only thing a typical criminal background check looks for.

The whole thing sounds odd to me. Did the "Sheriff" get bored and just start an administrative fishing trip to see what he could dig up on random people? Sounds like a violation of his Oath of Office.
 
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Rabble_Rouser said:
Minor offenses & parking or other traffic tickets are misdemeanors, and don't show up on a background check.
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Perhaps not on a 'background check,' but it may depend on who is doing the check, or what kind of check it is. Traffic tickets do show up when I run a history through the Arkansas Crime Information Center, which is linked to the National Crime Information Center.

Rabble_Rouser said:
Even if they did, I have never seen a statutory code where someone is prohibited from any license for anything less then a felony, which is the only thing a typical criminal background check looks for.
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A conviction for the misdemeanor crime of domestic violence would most certainly prevent one from getting a concealed handgun license.
 
Spats McGee said:
Perhaps not on a 'background check,' but it may depend on who is doing the check, or what kind of check it is. Traffic tickets do show up when I run a history through the Arkansas Crime Information Center, which is linked to the National Crime Information Center.
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Traffic tickets may “show up”, within your system but to my knowledge aren’t & never have been, grounds for denial of a license in any regard. Though, it has been a long time since I’ve begged my public servants for their permission to do anything.

Spats McGee said:
A conviction for the misdemeanor crime of domestic violence would most certainly prevent one from getting a concealed handgun license.
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The “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” being a statutory provision, is not something I consider to be a crime per se, but yes, in the perversion of the statutory process, where you are begging your government for permission to do something you have a free and inherent right to do anyway, does tie you in contract to their statutory regulations where they can decide what is acceptable and not. I simply just don’t operate in their jurisdiction.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that there is no wrong in “domestic violence”, just the perception of how it affects a man’s natural rights and the government sticking it’s nose into people’s homes & private affairs. In my family we have always just handled “domestic violence” within the family and don’t involve the government.
 
Rabble_Rouser said:
Traffic tickets may “show up”, within your system but to my knowledge aren’t & never have been, grounds for denial of a license in any regard. Though, it has been a long time since I’ve begged my public servants for their permission to do anything.
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I was just responding to what you said. To be clear, here it is:
Rabble_Rouser said:
Minor offenses & parking or other traffic tickets are misdemeanors, and don't show up on a background check. Even if they did, I have never seen a statutory code where someone is prohibited from any license for anything less then a felony, which is the only thing a typical criminal background check looks for....
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Emphasis supplied.

Rabble_Rouser said:
The “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” being a statutory provision, is not something I consider to be a crime per se, but yes, in the perversion of the statutory process, where you are begging your government for permission to do something you have a free and inherent right to do anyway, does tie you in contract to their statutory regulations where they can decide what is acceptable and not. I simply just don’t operate in their jurisdiction.
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That all sounds nice and rebellious, but, again, I was only responding to what you said:
Rabble_Rouser said:
Minor offenses & parking or other traffic tickets are misdemeanors, and don't show up on a background check. Even if they did, I have never seen a statutory code where someone is prohibited from any license for anything less then a felony, which is the only thing a typical criminal background check looks for....
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You may not like it, you might even consider it a perversion. And maybe it's even true that you've never seen a statutory code where conviction for something less than a felony bars a person from some kind of license license. Clearly, though, such statutory codes do exist, whether you've seen them or not.
 
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