http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/ ... ermits.asp

"NOTE: Due to Republican National Convention staff reallocation, no applications for permits to purchase handguns will be accepted from August 18 to September 8, 2008."

Do I need more tinfoil for my cap?

I'll bet that the guy who does permits is taking "vacation" from the MPD and "working" the Convention (for the SPPD) under the federal convention grant. Thus he gets paid TWICE and residents of Minneapolis get neither "Protection or Service."

FWIW, they are reallocating a ton of staff. Even some of us down in the MECC pit are feeling the shock waves as we are getting gobs of overtime to staff for the dispatching needs.

Makes me want to run out and buy aother Mosin Nagant or something silly on my Carry Permit just because I can.

What morons! They could just drag their feet on the permits due to staffing deficiency, but they HAD to turn it into a political statement. Add MPD's PR person to the list of individuals that should be working at White Castle.

How is this even legal? Is it a max of 30 days to process like carry permits?

I don't care how busy they are, if the circus is in town, if all their staff quit, accepting and processing the applications should not even be up for debate.

It's not 30 days for purchase permits, it's 7. The 7 days are theirs, not yours. If you don't get refused in that time, then your permit is considered issued.

I thought it was five.

I don't remember seeing anything in the statute about their being allowed to refuse to accept permit applications. My interpretation of the law is that the clock starts ticking as soon as you drop the application on the desk.

The real issue is whether you'll be able to convince an FFL to sell to you, after the five days have expired.

Fill out and sign the official STATE form only (make a photocopy). Mail it in certified mail, return receipt requested. The 7 days (or 5 business days) starts when they receive the envelope. What the PD does with it is their concern. There is no "in person" requirement to apply for a transferee permit. I applied by mail in Roseville from 1983 until 2003.

After the "processing time" expires, the permit IS issued. The photocopy of the application plus the USPS return receipt constitutes the evidence of your transferee permit.

I might be on the opposite side of this but....We need a lot of police force for the few days the RNC is here, were going to have fruit cups from everywhere coming to to protest and petition and we need EXTRA police force (not that it wouldn't help in everyday life) but the fact that they can't process a PTP in that amount of time isn"t a big deal to me (although I already have one). I would rather have a chaos free RNC because it is the first time in over 100 years in MN (last time was the late GREAT Teddy Roosevelt) then have a bunch of fruit cups/hippies protesting crap they don't even know enough about...but thats just my opinion.

And what if things get a little bit crazy down there, you decide that you want a firearm under you bed because you live close to the area and MPD sits on it? How would you feel then?

I don't object to the MPD deciding that these background checks are a waste of resources. These background checks are a waste of resources. The number of people who I believe should not have a gun, who would be prevented from getting a gun because of these background checks are, to a close order of approximation, zero.

And the law is clear - if the MPD doesn't do the background check and issue a denial within the statutory period, the sale is considered approved. Which is fine with me.

What I object to is that the dealers, who under law should be free to sell to someone without a permit, after the application period has expired, will most likely not do so, because of fears of [il]legal retaliation should they do so.

And do you have any suggestions for convincing a paranoid gun store owner that he should now sell you a gun?

Has anybody ever successfully purchased a gun using this method?

Yeah. I'd assume any dealer will conclude that evidence that the app was received is not evidence that the PD hasn't denied the purchase permit. Perhaps the dealer could call to confirm no denial, but if they're "closed for business" then that would go nowhere.

The alternative is for the dealer to submit a report of transfer - and then to sell if he doesn't receive a reply.

But the dealer's I've talked to don't like submitting reports of transfer - they'd rather you applied for a permit to purchase, because it's less work for them.

And I'm pretty sure that even if you could convince a dealer to submit a report of transfer, you'd have a hard sell convincing him to sell you a gun, just because the PD hasn't responded yet, and the law says it's OK.

When has the law gotten in the BATFE's way?