Permits must be renewed every three years

By TERESA RESSEL\Daily Journal Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, April 01, 2007
Updated: Saturday, March 31, 2007 9:11 PM CDT

Three years have passed since Missouri residents have been allowed to carry concealed weapons.

That means many of the permits are about to expire. The permits must be renewed every three years.

The Missouri Department of Revenue has sent out notices to remind nearly 13,000 Missourians whose conceal and carry endorsements expire this year. The expiration date is printed on the front of their license.

St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock said permit holders should not wait too long to renew because they'll have to go through the firearms training and full background check again. The sheriff's office is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you fail to renew on or before the expiration date, you must pay an additional late fee of $10 per month for each month it is expired - up to the six-month mark.

If you don't renew your permit within six months of its expiration date, you have to start all over. According to the guidelines, you will have to pay $100 for fingerprinting and another background check and also repeat the firearms training that was mandated for the initial permit.

Susan Dix of the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department said people whose permits are about to expire need to come into the sheriff's department. When they come in, they must present their driver's license or a non-driver's license containing the concealed carry endorsement. They will complete an application for renewal and pay a $50 non-refundable renewal fee.

Dix will run a background check through the Missouri system to make sure they haven't committed a crime since the permit was issued. She will fill out the forms and give them to the sheriff who has the final say on permit renewals. If approved, applicants must go to the license office within seven days to get the endorsement updated.

Dix said already 12 people have come into the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department to renew their permits. All were approved.

The law

Dix said fewer people have applied for a permit than expected. Since the law passed, Bullock has issued 327 permits.

Only a few who applied in St. Francois County have been denied a permit.

“I can probably count on one hand how many were denied,” Bullock said.

Bullock believes that is because people know they must go through an extensive background check with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI. People who know they are not going to pass the background check are not going to apply and face losing the $100 non-refundable application fee. Of the $100, $62 goes into the sheriff's department's revolving fund to purchase equipment.

And before people can even apply, they must complete an eight-hour training class from an instructor that is on Bullock's three-page list of qualified instructors. He said the fee is usually $125 to $200 for the course.

To get a permit, the applicant must be 23 years old; a citizen of the United States and a resident of Missouri for at least six months; not convicted of a felony crime and some misdemeanor crimes involving violence, drugs or alcohol; not have a valid order of protection against them; not have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent or have been released from a mental health facility within the past five years. A permit can be denied if an applicant makes a false statement on the application.

The process to get a permit can take up to 45 days. Bullock said the process will be quicker once his deputies are all trained on the LiveScan fingerprinting machine which they purchased last year.

Dix said another reason many people have not applied for a permit is because the law also allows Missourians, 21 and older, to conceal a weapon in their vehicle without a permit. Bullock said that is all many people ever wanted.

Bullock said no one who has been issued a conceal and carry permit has committed a violent crime in St. Francois County.

Dix often receives calls from permit holders asking whether the permit is good in the states they will be traveling to on vacation or for business. Illinois and Wisconsin are states where conceal and carry is not legal.

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming do not honor a Missouri endorsement to carry a concealed weapon.

According to the Missouri Attorney General's Web site, weapons laws in different states can and do have different definitions and restrictions. Because of those differences, Missourians who have conceal and carry endorsements and are planning to carry concealed weapons while traveling in and through the states that now recognize Missouri endorsements may still want to contact law enforcement authorities in those states to clarify any specific questions.

Gun permits

Anyone who purchases a gun in Missouri must get a gun permit from their local sheriff's department before they can do so, Bullock said.

To acquire a gun, the applicant must complete a two-page application that includes listing character witnesses. Then, the department runs a background check on the person and if the gun is used, the serial number is run through the system to see if the gun has been listed as lost or stolen.

Dix said some have come in with the intentions of buying a gun from a pawn shop, not knowing that the gun they wanted was stolen.

Dix cautions people that if their gun is lost or stolen or if they sell or give away the gun, they should bring their blue permit card to the sheriff's department so the gun is taken out of their name or listed as lost or stolen. She said that way, if the gun is used in a crime, it will “not come back to them.”

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