Missouri Sheriff Discounts Concealed Carry Permits To Encourage Citizens To Apply

LACLEDE COUNTY, MISSOURI — Good news, Laclede county residents!  Your sheriff is dropping the price of concealed carry permits from $100 to $65.  The decision was made, according to Sheriff Wayne Merritt, to encourage people to go out and get their concealed carry permits.

via CBS 47

“I just think people having CCWs — you don’t know whether they’re armed or not — and you’re a little more reluctant to go in and shoot a place up or rob people,” Merritt said. “I think people have the right, if they want to have a concealed firearm and are law-abiding citizens that they have a right to carry a concealed weapon.”

Well, we’d tend to agree.  The more people that are armed means certainly the more people able to respond to some mass murdering maniac running through a place with an illegally obtained firearm.  And while Merritt is joining in on a long conga line of other sheriffs and law enforcement officers from around the country in actively encouraging citizenry to get legally armed and remain armed, Merritt’s methods are a bit lackluster.

A $35 discount?  Why was it $100 to begin with?

As it turned out, Missouri General Assembly set the limit for how much a sheriff could charge his or her residents — him being the chief issuing authority and all.

11. For processing an application for a concealed carry permit pursuant to sections 571.101 to 571.121, the sheriff in each county shall charge a nonrefundable fee not to exceed one hundred dollars which shall be paid to the treasury of the county to the credit of the sheriff’s revolving fund.

12. For processing a renewal for a concealed carry permit pursuant to sections 571.101 to 571.121, the sheriff in each county shall charge a nonrefundable fee not to exceed fifty dollars which shall be paid to the treasury of the county to the credit of the sheriff’s revolving fund.

Missouri Revised Statutes, 571.101.11-12

So, it turns out Sheriff Wayne Merritt managed to hit two birds with one stone: promoting lawful self-defense and bringing the prices down a bit.

A hundred bucks means a lot to quite a few people, especially around the holidays.