Back in February I took my concealed carry permit class from Dan Starks. Thus started my foray into the realm of normal citizen attempting to legally carry a concealed weapon. My wife bought me a Smith & Wesson .40 for Christmas last year. I've been to the local range a couple times and decided that I was interested in getting a CCW. Mainly because it allows you to purchase firearms in North Carolina without having to purchase a gun permit each time, plus my family does a lot of backwoods activities and I would like to be able to carry a firearm if I felt the need.

On a visit to Hyatt Gun and Pawn I noticed a signup sheet for a concealed carry permit class. I signed up and went home to confirm that I meet all North Carolina's requirements for a CCW.

Dan's class was amazing. After four hours of class room training about the does and don't of concealed weapons and general firearm safety, the packed classroom headed to the Mecklenburg Wildlife Rifle & Pistol Club for the range qualification piece of Dan's class. I'm not sure if this is required by North Carolina in order to receive a CCW, but it wasn't difficult to pass and actually introduced me to a private gun club that is only minutes from my house.

After the class, I called to schedule an appointment with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office to complete my concealed carry permit. It was a three month wait before their next opening so I scheduled the appointment and waited. During the appointment, I completed the application, submitted all the paperwork and paid the non-refundable ^$90 fee for the background check.

About a week later I received a notice in the mail from the sheriff's office stating that they had found a felon arrest in Alabama and needed me to supply them with a certified copy of the disposition of the case before they would rule on issuing the permit. I knew it was going to be hard to get information about the court case since it was a sealed case. I had pleaded guilty of being a youthful offender in Alabama and didn't have any information from the case. I called the clerk's office in Alabama and finally got in contact with a lady that could help me get a copy of the disposition to the sheriff's office. She assured me that under Alabama law, being found guilty of being a YOA wouldn't be grounds for denial of a CCW in Alabama.

I called the sheriff's office to ask them to call my point of contact in the Alabama clerk's office to receive the needed information. Tamara Rhode, the Supervisor of Gun Permits Bureau for Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, told me that I would have to provide the contact information to them in person. The next day I drove downtown and provided them the information. The lady behind the counter, who would only identify herself as Sandra, told me that she would call the clerk's office and give me a call when they had the information they needed.

I waited a couple days, and not having received a call from Sandra, I called the Alabama clerk's office to ask if they had been contacted by and provided the needed information to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office. She said that she had and that it shouldn't be an issue for getting the permit issued. About a week later, I received another letter in the mail from the sheriff's office notifying me that my permit request had been declined because I had received a felony conviction in Alabama, and that I "have the right to an appeal by petitioning a chief district court judge in Mecklenburg County."

Amazingly enough, no where on the internet is there information for taking that route.

After spending a few hours attempting to find information about how to submit a petition, I finally gave up and contacted Dan to see if he knew what to do. He pointed me to a local lawyer.

I contacted the lawyer (name withheld until I have confirmed that he will be representing me) to get his take on the situation. He kindly offered some free advice with things to try before I would need to hire him to take the case to court. He mentioned that I should take the copy of the court record to the sheriff's office an ask for them to review the document.

After receiving the court record (this actually arrived much faster than I expected from the Alabama clerk's office) I headed down to the sheriff's office again for the third time. Again, I meet with Sandra and she told me that even though I was found guilty of youthful offender in Alabama, in North Carolina I wouldn't have been eligible for this status and therefore they had decided that instead of being guilt of being a youthful offender the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office decided that I was guilt of the crime on record for the arrest.

Now, I am no lawyer, but instantly made me sick to my stomach for one main reason. The sheriff's office had decided on it's own that it would decide that it knew better than a court of law what crimes I was guilty of.

Obviously, I am going to fight this, but at a cost to myself. So now, not only have I had to pay for all the fees associated with getting the permit ($400), I have to hire a lawyer to dispute this decision in court and hopefully help the courts see the errors that have been made by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office.

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