LVMPD Opens Online CCW Applications

UPDATE: As of 4/1/2020, Metro is now allowing CCW classes to continue with social distancing. 

Las Vegas Metro PD is now accepting online CCW applications through it's new "ECCW" process. What changed? Instead of bringing the hard copy form down to the records bureau at headquarters, you can electronically submit the form using a web page (like many other online forms you've filled out). You then attach scans of your identification and approved certificate from your instructor.

You will then receive an email if your application was complete, incomplete, or was denied. Then you are given a link to pay online within 30 days. After that, you are scheduled for a fingerprint appointment. Per NV Shoot & Train, Metro's current estimate is that fingerprinting will resume April 27, subject to change.

This step is a revolutionary one in Nevada's most populous county and with the department that issues the most permits in the state. It will make the application process less cumbersome for users who no longer have to do the two-step process of submitting the application and paying, then waiting on the bench with the strippers and sex offenders for fingerprinting.

I date to say it will speed up issuance time (less work on processing applications means more applications get processed) but from the backlog alone the COVID crisis has caused will result in 120 day approval times. You thought after Sandy Hook in 2013 was a long wait? If only Nevada was like Utah and kept the fingerprints on file, they could be approved in days.

Ban on Classes, Fly in the Ointment

UPDATE: As of 4/1/2020, Metro is now allowing CCW classes to continue with social distancing. ​

Original Article

Metro took a huge step of essentially banning any CCW instruction in Clark County by saying it will not accept any classes taken during the state of emergency. No other county in Nevada has done this. Some counties have stopped accepting applications as their lobbies have closed to the public, but none have gone so far as to outright ban the taking of classes.

As you can see from the attached screenshot, Metro's Special Investigations Section (SIS) unilaterally determined that CCW training is not an "essential business" under the governor's order. Does that mean that LVMPD now supports average citizens openly carrying?

Metro will not accept any CCW permits dated from 3/24/2020 to whenever they deem it appropriate for classes to continue. If you have not taken the class for a permit yet, this applies to you.

Metro's decision will be Exhibit 1 in getting rid of concealed carry in Nevada once and for all. We'll hang it around their necks. Metro is making this decision because the law arguably gives the sheriff the right to certify instructors and accept their certificates. Metro is saying "no classes" because it can. It can't actually stop the classes, but it can waste everyone's time and money.

This was a monumentally stupid decision that will haunt their agency for years to come. They don't want people to get trained on how to safely use and carry a firearm. Concealed carry classes are sometimes the only formal firearms training people get. In this time of panic and fear, shouldn't people be getting quality training on when you can legally shoot someone and how not to have an accident with a gun?

Did any of the f---tards on MLK Blvd. actually think about this decision? Metro basically said, "Yeah, let's leave it to Google for people to figure out how to own and carry a gun legally. That's a brilliant idea!" 

Look at how the request is worded (see original article). "Need to stop immediately." Right to association much? Did anyone think that an alternative like, classes of 8 students and 1 instructor? Maybe? 

As I wrote earlier, there is the assertion that concealed carry is a privilege and not a right, which anyone knows is horseshit. Concealed carry permits are an easy way for cops to bust people with guns they want to arrest. Police have traditionally chafed at removing concealed carry restrictions because it means if they find a guy who fails the "duck test" of being a criminal, but they can't find anything to arrest him for, they have to let him go. 

I've been in the situation where you know a guy is "dirty" and you can't prove it. Finding a gun on him cements the deal and he goes away for a CCW charge. Yet for all the idiot criminals you catch carrying illegally, a lot of the time they're prohibited persons anyway and/or you had PC to arrest them for something else entirely and the gun was just a cherry on top.

The concealed carry laws put people at risk because Mom will put a gun in her purse, but won't strap on a hogleg. Dad just wants to keep his family safe, but he's not comfortable letting people know he's armed. Most people prefer to carry concealed and laws restricting that right to a permit are unconstitutional. As I've pointed out on this blog, concealed carry was a failed experiment at getting people to carry guns 150-200 years ago. 

So cool your jets before you get excited. If you haven't had the class already, you're stuck waiting until Metro unf--ks itself and stops denying people the ability to take a training class. A training class to get a permit to exercise a constitutional right.

Yes, a pandemic is serious business but it's no reason to treat the Constitution as toilet paper.

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