Bearing the Cost - a request for info

[Stickjockey]

In Oregon a new permit is $65 plus a class fee that varies form $35 up depending on where you get it. My county sheriff will issue with a DD214 and no class.

Renewal is $50 and required every 4 years.

Oregon is a shall issue and open carry state.

Just some additions:

Oregon new permit to carry is broken down into:

$50.00 permit fee and $15.00 fingerprint fee.

Open carry is technically legal all over, but just try it in places like Portland. They'll find something to get you for.

No permit requirement to buy, handguns or long guns.

 

[Oldtimer]

There's a "twist" in what I'm about to explain. I should start off by saying that I have carried a legal concealed weapon for 35+ years in the People's Republik of California.....where CCW permits are not on a "shall issue" basis, never have been, and probably never will be!

I became a POLICE OFFICER! Now, as an honorably retired police officer (going on 5 years), I still have "CCW" authority, in the way of my "retired" police I.D. card. It has cost me absolutely NOTHING over those 35+ years, other than working full-time within the profession, building up to the day that I retired and started recieving a VERY comfortable retirement!

Backing it down one notch, there are RESERVE police officers that work part-time, but benefit from their reserve status by being allowed to CCW for FREE! They also get ISSUED a brand-new service handgun, go through invaluable police training, and feel the PRIDE of doing something for their community! The countless number of reserve police officers that I worked with came from varied walks of life....perhaps the "lowest" was an auto mechanic, and the highest level was a multi- millionaire corporate lawyer! Several of the reserve officers that I worked with eventually gave up their full-time jobs to become FULL-time police officers! One of those reserves that I worked with had achieved the rank of Lieutenant when I retired!

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a retired officer that was STILL carrying a concealed weapon....at age 86! He had retired when he was 56 years old, after 34 years of active-duty police work. He looked like he was in his 60's, and still in pretty darn good physical condition!

All of those years....FREE! Well, I guess that you might think that "payment" is through the years of service that a police officer goes through. SURE!
More than that, however, is the satisfaction of having helped people, saved lives, and having an "impact" on the well-being of society.

The current CCW issue seems to be a bit "trendy", at least in my opinion. Sure, it's a "right", or perhaps a "privelege"....but it also seems to be a bit one-sided. All too many CCW permitees merely think that it's "cool" to legally carry a firearm.
The majority of permitees carry for their own safety, or for the safety of their loved ones. I carried for ALL of you, and put my life on the line for over 3 decades as a police officer!

Just some food for thought, especially since so many seem to think that the police are "JBT's".
The police are AUTHORITY, and the majority of police officers are 100% "normal", average, honest, God-fearing and tax-paying individuals....just like YOU! If you have EVER contemplated doing something beyond merely "surviving" with your skills and CCW permit, you might want to at least look into the possibility of becoming a highly-trained, part-time RESERVE police officer or deputy sheriff! Add to that, in closing, it would be a LOT easier, if you were involved in a shooting, to identify yourself as a "Police Officer" than to choke on the words "I'm a legal CCW permitee!", since you only have your CCW permit to rely upon for proper I.D.!

 

[TimboKhan]

To expound on Rockstar.esq's post, let me just say that last year Colorado finally implemented a right to carry law, and at least theoretically standardized applicatin and cost procedures. I say theoretically because it is not so! Here is the story. Rockstar.esq and I both have CCW permits issued in Larimer County. My other buddy has a permit issued in Weld County. These two counties butt right up against each other, and the county seats for each are all of 30 miles from each other. I got my CCW BEFORE the new law went into effect and Rockstar.esq got his after, and there was absolutly no difference in how things worked. This made sense to me because Larimer County under the current sheriff was always basically a Right to carry counter. In Weld County, however, my buddy had to do the following (in addition to paying the same fees that we pay in Larimer): Get a psychologist to sign a letter stating that he was of right mind, get a doctor to sign a letter stating that he was physically capable of carrying a weapon, get a gunsmith to inspect and sign off on each and every gun he ever intended to carry, get three letters of recommendation from 3 non-familial relations that resided in Weld County at the time of the application submission, and finally, submit a short essay as to why he was applying for the license to begin with. Now, he had to do all of that because he got his license prior to the new law. I, living 20 minutes away, walked into the sherrifs office, paid my money and filled out a form. His license recently came up for renewal, which for Rockstar.esq and I is, I believe, a $45.00 charge and thats about it (providing we live in the same county, which I no longer do. I now live in Weld County). He has to fill out a form in which he has to list all of his addresses for the last 10 years, and some other ticky-tack things like that, all for a RENEWAL. The right to carry law in this state was great, but apparently there is still some work needed to standardize it. The oddest part about the whole thing to me is that Weld County is a pretty strong Republican county, and Larimer County has a much higher population of Democrats....