Renewal of PA license

[wolf_fire]

I mailed in my renewal (rather than taking it in person). I mailed it on the 9th of November. I received validation on the 27th of November. As soon as I go down and get my picture taken and give $20, I walk out with the renewal license for the next five years.

How are other states renewal procedures in comparison?


Personally, the whole exercise seems like a complete waste of time to me, but it's the system we have and was wondering about others.

 

[JohnD13]

With the un"Safe Act" coming online, we will have five year recertification's here starting in 2014. In my county they have done this for years, stop in to the pistol permit clerks office, they run a NCIS check, take your five dollars, and say see you next time. I'm sure it will get more complicated next year. But. it's only a background check, in NY, at least outside the city, a pistol license is issued for life, or until revoked for doing something stupid.

 

[JDM]

Here's a fun little snippet from my county probate court web site (A probate court judge reviews your application and decides whether or not to issue in GA.)
.
I already have a WCL and simply need to get it renewed. Do I have to go through the whole application and fingerprint process again?

Yes. In 2006 the Georgia Legislature amended O.C.G.A. §16-11-129 to require that all applicants, even for renewals, would need to be fingerprinted.
.
.
They also have a sense of humor.
I’ve applied for a WCL and have been denied due to my 15 page criminal history containing multiple felony and drug convictions. Do I get my $79.25 back?


No.

 

[BluesStringer]

It is possible to mail in a renewal application/payment, but I've read of long waits when you do, so I don't. I drive the ~10 miles to the Sheriff's Office, usually walk straight to the receptionist's counter (usually no one ahead of me - never been more than two people in line), say hey to Ramona, hand her my old permission slip and tell her I want to renew it, sign the three copies of the new one (no pictures, no fingerprints), pay my $15 bucks (per year - we can now buy one-year increments up to five-year renewals), tell Ramona I'll see her next year and turn around and split. The longest part of the process has always been the 20 mile round trip for the 13 years we've lived in this house, quite a bit less than that in the other two jurisdictions we've lived in since moving to AL in '92. Time inside the office has never been more than 10 minutes, usually just a couple or three minutes.

As easy and relatively cheap as it is here, I still resent the requirement as much as I resent any other mandated interfacing with government. There's questions as to the source of the quote, maybe Jefferson, maybe Henry David Thoreau, maybe a magazine article in the early 19th Century, but whoever said it first got it right - "That government which governs best, governs least."

Blues