Somerset County, Pennsylvania is one of the more conservative counties in the state. Last week Donald Trump and J.D. Vance received more than four times as many votes as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz; 40,961 to 8,559.
Given the ruby-red nature of the voting public, it’s not exactly shocking that the right to carry is also pretty popular in Somerset County. And on Election Day, as thousands of residents cast their vote for Trump, hundreds more turned out at the county courthouse to apply for their concealed carry license.
Jon Zimmers, a clerk in Somerset County Sheriff Dusty Weir’s office, told the Daily American newspaper that more than 300 individuals dropped off their applications on Election Day; a one-day record for the county.
Weir notified the public on Oct. 31 via his office’s Facebook page, that the time to seek a gun permit was extended from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. an extra three hours until 7 p.m. on Election Day. But Weir, his deputies and staff were surprised by the overwhelming response.
“We realized with the response this (event) was going to be absolutely massive,” Zimmers said. They weren’t wrong.
“At one time you could not see the first floor because people were everywhere,” he said.
There were men and women of all ages, Zimmers said. He recalled that one 72-year-old woman had never handled and used a gun in her entire life. Her husband died. He had guns. She told Zimmers she thought it might to time to obtain a permit and learn how to use the guns.
While Pennsylvania is taking its sweet time in tabulating all of the votes cast on Election Day, Weir and his staff did an absolutely amazing job of processing the carry applications.
On Election Day, the county sheriff’s office processed most of the applications then and there allowing the applicants to walk out with their permits after completing the process that included a photo taken by a hand-held camera by the office’s representatives and a finished background check through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System as they waited.
If Somerset County, Pennsylvania can offer same-day service for concealed carry permits (at least in most cases), why does it take six, nine, or twelve months for applicants in places like Los Angeles or New York City to hear back from licensing authorities?
Actually, that’s a dumb question. We know why it’s such a lengthy process in those locations; the powers that be don’t want to approve concealed carry applications in a timely manner. They’ll leave licensing offices understaffed, impose all kinds of subjective standards on applicants, and build in artificial delays like in-person interviews and psychological exams that make it impossible for licensing authorities to quickly grant approval to qualified applicants.
Sheriff Weir and his team should be congratulated for doing such outstanding work in processing the carry applications as quickly as possible. In a perfect world Pennsylvania wouldn’t require a permission slip from the sheriff in order to bear arms in public, but until that day comes it’s great to see a sheriff that understands and appreciates the fundamental importance of our right to bear arms.
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