For several months now, the Santa Clara District Attorney's office has been investigating allegations that Laurie Smith, the Santa Clara County sheriff, has been engaged in the corrupt practice of granting concealed carry licenses to those who fork over cash for her campaign coffers. The San Jose Mercury News has done a solid job of reporting on the ongoing investigation, and their latest report is a doozy. According to some recently released records from the sheriff’s office, it sure looks like Sheriff Smith and her staff have a policy that "favors those with power and influence", as the paper puts it. Those records showed that among the permit recipients was Martin Nielsen, a security executive with Seattle-based AS Solution, whose clients include Facebook’s top executives. Campaign finance records show that Nielsen made a single $45,000 donation in October 2018 to an independent expenditure committee backing Sheriff Laurie Smith’s bid for a sixth term as sheriff. Nielsen was granted a permit in March. Multiple sources have confirmed that donation - the only one Nielsen has ever made to support Smith - was one of the primary catalysts of the DA probe. To date, warrants related to the investigation have been served to Undersheriff Rick Sung, the second-ranking commander in the agency behind Smith, as well as one captain and two sergeants with the sheriff's office, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. This wasn’t the only concealed carry approval raising eyebrows. The Mercury News reports that four Apple employees who provide "executive protection" also received their concealed carry licenses after two Apple executives made donations to Smith’s re-election bid in 2018. According to the Mercury News, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office has been less than forthcoming in releasing public documents requested by the paper under the Freedom of Information Act, but based on the information available, it sure looks like those who had the cash to contribute to the sheriff's election campaigns got a boost in the efforts to obtain a coveted concealed carry license, which are rarely granted in Santa Clara County. As a result, many questions remain about how the sheriff's office decides who is granted a concealed-carry permit in the county and who does not. More than half of approximately 150 conceal carry weapon permits issued or renewed in Santa Clara County since 2014 are for civilians, for which California sheriffs have full authority to issue permits as they see fit, based on the apparently fluid requirement of showing "good cause". That discretionary power explains widely varying numbers of permit approvals between counties; for example, Sacramento County, which is similarly sized as Santa Clara County and exercises the same permitting authority, has more than 5,000 active permits. This isn't that surprising. Put power and decision-making power into the hands of government officials, it will get abused. (There's no adequate due process or realistic methods to hold these officials accountable) Related article: Two men from rural Northern California counties say they've been denied open-carry permits by local authorities and can't even begin to start the application process because the state doesn't give sheriffs the necessary forms. They believe California's laws, which require applicants to demonstrate "good cause", amount to a de facto ban and note that the state hasn't issued an open-carry license since the law went into effect in 2012. https://comptonherald.org/open-carry-gun-owners-fight-california-restrictions/ And in case anyone thinks "this is only one state" and it doesn't really matter that much, consider that 12% of the US population lives in California.
First the state of New York, now the state of California. How many more states with may issue standards are actually engaged in such?
The CA state CCW law does not meet the requirements of the equal protection clause of the US constitution. It should be challenged and overturned, forcing CA to adopt shall-issue.
I find it hilarious that in these "may issue" states you are pleading to an armed law enforcement officer who asks "Why do you feel the need to carry a firearm in public" and your response of "the same reason you do" is not acceptable.
"May issue" states have always experienced these problems with Sheriffs granting CCW permits to their friends and supporters. Interestingly, just to the north is Oregon which is also a blue state. But it is a "shall issue" state that has issued a quarter of a million CCW permits to its residents, approximately 10% of the population. California has a murder rate of 4.4 per 100,000. Oregon has a murder rate of 2.0 per 100,000. Go figure.
Hmmm, the GCA, says, but that shouldn’t be... Shall Carry puts more gun on the street so anyone can shoot any if provoked; just wait, the blood on the streets is coming any day.
