Gary Toelke supports the current CCW laws, but not the new one ... Current CCW laws allow sheriffs to use their own discretion on issuing permits, the Constitutional Carry bill eliminates that. [More]I'd say Franklin County has the wrong sheriff.
[Via Rich S]
My uncle was sheriff in Onondaga county for a couple decades. I finally decided to apply for my permit a few years back and after over $300 in different fees and hours wasted on classes I was denied. The sheriff's department issues the permits, accepts the applications and the the sheriff makes the rules but the process is deferred to a county judge. After close to a year of waiting and annoying people in various offices about the lackadaisical approach to the application process I finally got a notice from a judge essentially telling me I didn't have good enough moral character to be given the privilege of carrying a handgun.
ReplyDeleteI was told through various sources within the sheriff's dep. (Not my uncle) that citing constitutional/case law is the fast track to a denial since the judges don't like being 'preached' to.
In Onondaga county the process involves proving there is direct necessity for fear of safety. I stated that my father and I are the only ones in our family in the county that my uncle was sheriff that didn't have a means to defend ourselves. This is an issue because my uncle received a rather substantial following of people who threatened his life for various reasons.
Now, several years later, my uncle has retired and left the state while my father and I sit here 'uninfringed' and unprotected. Am I truly in fear for my life? Actually, yes. Things can turn in less than a second and without the ready means to defend myself what can I do?
Of course there's work arounds to this problem which I may or may not have taken but that's not the issue. The point is anyone who uses their mouth, position and power to create an infringement of this magnitude (on ANY American) have done more than 'their job' or 'exercised free speech', they've physically placed myself and countless others in harms way. The way I see it, that is a physical attack that deserves a response in kind.
So when some idiot like this Gary Toelke makes a ridiculous statement like this and acts like he's the arbitor of God given rights, I can't help but think maybe it's time to start using treason as the descriptor of their intentions.