Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
On July 1, the requirement that an applicant demonstrate a need to carry a hidden handgun was dropped, meaning that virtually any law-abiding citizen can obtain a permit.
Clerks' offices across the state have been inundated with application requests. In a few weeks' time, many clerks' offices have processed more applications than they did in all of 1994.
As of last Monday, 74 applications had been filed in Roanoke Circuit Court since the law changed July 1. About a dozen had been approved. Only 23 applications were filed in 1994.
In Montgomery County, as of Thursday, 63 applications had been filed. Last year, 51 applications were filed.
Increased use of Virginia Criminal Information Network computers for job background checks led state police to issue an edict effective July 1 that only they may conduct background checks not related to criminal investigations. That's because legislative requirements for background checks for teachers, day-care workers and other job applicants were clogging the system, said 1st Sgt. T.W. Turner.
Turner said about 250,000 criminal history checks not related to police investigations were requested last year.
"The system was not designed to carry this administrative function," he said. "I can remember when we probably didn't do 50,000 a year, probably 30,000."
Some clerks and law enforcement officers are wrongly interpreting the new directive as meaning localities can't do the background check for concealed weapon permits anymore.
When the new permit law took effect, Radford, Pulaski County and Giles County clerks' offices began handing out forms telling applicants to send $15 to state police for the background check.
But Turner, with the State Police's Central Criminal Record Exchange, said criminal history checks for concealed weapon applicants can be done by local law enforcement offices without requiring applicants to send a form and $15 to the state.
"Mr. Governor, he said it was going to be easier for honest citizens to carry a weapon, and this is more complicated than the old system," said Kenneth Blankenship, a Giles County man who works as a pipe fitter at Hoechst Celanese.
Blankenship said he felt as if he was getting the runaround as he went from the Sheriff's Office to the clerk's office, collecting information for his permit application. He said he thought the $15 fee requirement was wrong, because he thought a deputy had done the criminal history check and marked his record as clean on a fingerprint card.
The Sheriff's Office did background checks until July 1, then began handing out the forms requiring a $15 payment to state police, Investigator Willie Lucas said. Giles stopped handing out the form after learning it did not apply to concealed-weapon permits. Instead, applicants must send $24 and a fingerprint card - completed free at the Sheriff's Office - to the state police. The card is forwarded to the FBI for a comprehensive national check. A second fingerprint card is kept on file locally.
"It's mass confusion," Lucas said. "It's a mess" that the Sheriff's Office solved only after making several phone calls.
Blankenship's questions have been cleared up and his application is pending.
Other Western Virginia localities continue to wrestle with the nuances of the law.
Turner cautioned that, while the check includes records in Virginia and records on file with the National Criminal Information Center, it is a name check only.
The FBI fingerprint check assures a thorough, nationwide search. However, the jurisdictions that require the $24 FBI fingerprint check as part of the application process may be exceeding the maximum charge outlined in the new law.
For example, applicants in Montgomery County get a cover letter telling them they must pay $15 to the clerk of court, $24 for the fingerprinting by the Sheriff's Office and $24 for the FBI fingerprint check. That adds up to $63.
Concealed-weapon permit fees are limited to no more than $50 with the new law:
$5 goes to state police to offset the costs of maintaining records to create a database that will alert law enforcement officers, when they check someone's Social Security or driver's license number, that the person has a concealed weapon permit. This fee is generally being collected at court clerks' offices.
$10 goes to the clerk's office for processing the application.
Up to $35 goes to the local law enforcement agency for a background check.
"We're going to review this," Montgomery County Sheriff Ken Phipps said of the fees.
"Not all localities are requiring that extra FBI check," said Paul Delosh, a member of the technical assistance department of the Virginia Supreme Court. He's been helping clerks adjust to the requirements of the new law.
Delosh said Virginia Beach dropped the requirement about a month ago. Fairfax is collecting the $24 for the fingerprint search but as a part of the $35 that may be charged by the locality for a background check.
Capt. Bob Strickler said Franklin County's background check includes local, state and national information. The county does not use the FBI fingerprint check.
But those agencies that require the FBI check say it's necessary to determine whether an applicant has a criminal record.
"We knew that first month would probably be quite hectic," Phipps said. The primary concern, he said, is that law enforcement "get ample criminal history information, not to let someone slip through the cracks."
Staff writers Laurence Hammack and Todd Jackson contributed information to this story.
by CNB