{"id":4099,"date":"2011-07-28T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2011\/07\/28\/calguns-sues-merced-county-sheriff-over\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:15:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:15:38","slug":"calguns-sues-merced-county-sheriff-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=4099","title":{"rendered":"CalGuns Sues Merced County Sheriff Over CCW Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:17227,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.calgunsfoundation.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260418022109\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.calgunsfoundation.org\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 06:40:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 15:21:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 15:21:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>The CalGuns Foundation is doing a great job in keeping California sheriffs honest when it comes to concealed carry law in that state. They have just filed a suit in Merced County against the county, the sheriffs department, and Sheriff Mark Pazin for the additional requirements that Sheriff Pazin imposes on CCW applicants. CalGuns alleges these additional requirements contravene California state law.<\/p>\n<p>I think it is safe to say that other counties in California may expect such lawsuits if they try to skirt the state law on concealed carry. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>FOUNDATION SUES MERCED COUNTY, SHERIFF MARK PAZIN OVER UNLAWFUL FIREARM CARRY LICENSE APPLICATION POLICIES<\/p>\n<p>San Carlos, CA (July 27, 2011) \u2013 As part of its ongoing Carry License Compliance and Sunshine Initiative, the Calguns Foundation has filed a lawsuit in Merced County Superior Court challenging Merced County and its Sheriff\u2019s firearm carry licensing policy for violating state law. Joining CGF are three individual plaintiffs who have been harmed by these policies, Michelle and Seth Rossow and James Clark. The plaintiffs are represented by Jason Davis of Mission Viejo and Donald Kilmer of San Jose.<\/p>\n<p>California firearm carry license laws currently require applicants to have \u201cgood cause\u201d and \u201cgood moral character.\u201d The Calguns Foundation believes that those requirements are an unconstitutional prior restraint on the people\u2019s right to bear arms, and is challenging those requirements in its Federal lawsuit over Yolo County\u2019s carry licensing scheme in Richards v. Prieto, currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>However, in Merced County, the Sheriff saddles applicants with additional forms, fees, and processes &#8211; even for individuals who meet the heightened good cause and moral character requirements &#8211; that, CGF alleges, violate state law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSheriff Pazin has had ample time to create a policy that adheres to state law,\u201d said Brandon Combs, a director of CGF and leader of the Initiative. Calguns Foundation first contacted Merced in October of 2010, when it discovered that the Sheriff had established an unlawful moratorium on carry license applications. The Sheriff subsequently lifted the moratorium, but has since refused to modify parts of his policy that CGF identified as unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case is definitely important to all Merced County residents who seek a carry license,\u201d added CGF chairman Gene Hoffman. \u201cWhat Sheriff Pazin has done is further burden a process that\u2019s already costly and complex with unlawful requirements and fees. We are merely requesting the court mandate that the Sheriff\u2019s policy be consistent with existing law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1999, California enacted Assembly Bill 2022 to enforce standards upon the carry licensing process. &#8220;The Legislature, in AB 2022, sought to address the arbitrary and widely-varying abuses in carry license policies between different cities and counties in California,\u201d said Jason Davis. \u201cThey made it clear that application requirements, forms, and fees are to be uniform throughout the state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we found out my wife was about to become a new mom,&#8221; said plaintiff Seth Rossow, &#8220;we knew we needed to take steps to protect our family when we weren\u2019t in our home. We\u2019ve had problems with meth users hiding at our ranch, and we watch the news like everybody else. In this day of budget cuts and reduced law enforcement patrols, it is important for us to be able to easily apply for our carry licenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Rossow\u2019s concerns for their safety are not unique,&#8221; added Don Kilmer. &#8220;California created a system that was designed so that applicants could focus on important issues, like training, rather than worry about a local form the Sheriff might or might not want them to fill out that day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately, this case is about making carry license policies consistent with California law,\u201d said Gene Hoffman. \u201cWe believe that we can accomplish this without 58 lawsuits, but if that\u2019s what it requires, that\u2019s what we are prepared to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A downloadable copy of the complaint may be found at CGF\u2019s downloads library. More information on Calguns Foundation\u2019s Carry License Compliance and Sunshine Initiative and other Second Amendment-related litigation and educational efforts can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calgunsfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.calgunsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/i>  <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n&#8211; Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CalGuns Foundation is doing a great job in keeping California sheriffs honest when it comes to concealed carry&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2123,3040,4221],"class_list":["post-4099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calguns","tag-merced-county","tag-sheriff-mark-pazin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7027,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions\/7027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}