# A few questions from a (former) inspection law scofflaw now looking to get his LTC



## KAS (Jul 5, 2016)

Alright. This is kinda a grab bag. First of all, in my slightly younger, somewhat dumber days, I barely ever got my vehicles inspected, because I didn't really care or realize that it would affect my insurance premiums and make me an HTO eventually. My wakeup call was the 60 day suspension (which I served legally and certainly learned my lesson from. All my rides are now legally inspected and always will be.) So my drivers record is a 3 ring circus of failure to inspect and equipment violation tickets, which I'm sure colors MaSP officers opinion of me somewhat when I (nowadays, very very rarely) find myself speaking with them. Nothing I can do about it now except wait for it to all fall off my record in a couple years and keep my nose clean.

Second, two years ago, just before the suspension went into effect, I had finally bought a car that I could fix enough to get inspected without the inspector doubling up in laughter. I bought it on the third of August 2014 in NY and drove it home on my old plates, within the 7 day grace period, having left the old crapcan at a junkyard in NY. That Wednesday I was pulled over yet again for lack of inspection sticker. I couldn't find my old registration or the bill of sale (they turned out to be in the trunk, I'd forgotten where I left them when leaving the sellers house) and given the fact that the title wasn't filled out fully, I had presented no proof of the plates being mine or my old vehicle being gone, and the officer had looked at my freakshow of a drivers record, he did what any reasonable person would do and charged me with a couple criminal charges (IIRC, uninsured MV & attaching plates w/ intent to conceal) plus another inspection sticker civil charge just for good measure, and my car rode the flatbed of shame to the local impound. Since I had it all cleared up (insured same day, registered Friday, inspected as soon as I could find someone to drive it to the station for me the next week) all charges were dismissed or found NR as soon as I showed the prosecutor my paperwork. Thank god, I really didn't need a criminal record over stupid mistakes, though I couldn't have blamed anyone else if it had gone badly.

Anyways. All that is just background info and I don't blame anyone but myself for my record, I brought it on myself through ignorance of the law. I'm not bitter with anyone but myself, the past is the past and I won't be repeating those mistakes.

Now, my girlfriend has gotten her LTC-A ALP and wants me to get mine so we can become range members somewhere nearby, start a small collection and go shooting more often. I took the NRA safety class, then started looking at the forms and realized that the question is "have you ever been *charged with* a felony? if yes, please explain" not "have you ever been *convicted of* a felony". If you were a town's firearms licensing officer and heard my tale of woe and stupidity, and looked at my drivers record, how much are you going to laugh and is there any chance I'm going to get my LTC? If the answer is I should wait a few years and keep my nose clean, and THEN try applying, so be it, I've just got a case of the nerves here. The town I live in is fairly permissive about gun licensing, for the record, I believe it's listed in green in that big thread on NEShooters.

PS - after much thought, even if I get my LTC-A ALP, I likely will not be carrying regularly. The only reason I'd prefer ALP over a sporting use restriction is it makes transport to/from the range a lot more cut and dried, rather than worrying about, say, going to lunch or the sporting good store on the way home from the range and therefore possibly not strictly being on the way from the range back home, I'm simply in the clear.


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## MiamiVice (May 2, 2002)

Sounds like no disqualifying factors on your record. Depends where you live how bad they may want to break your chops, but if you have no convictions you qualify. You may be denied based upon suitability but you'd most likely win on appeal. 

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## Tuna (Jun 1, 2006)

An LTC is a big responsibility. You sure your ready?


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## MiamiVice (May 2, 2002)

P.s. it never "falls off your record" you own that for life

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## Truck (Apr 3, 2006)

Unless the licensing authority looks for a reason to disqualify you should be all set. You should know how your town is regarding licenses via local gossip. If you don't there are websites that provide this info GOAL, COMM2 etc.


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

Check over @ Northeastshooters.com for a list of the pro-gun towns and see if your is on it. In any event, you should just apply cuz I don't see any real automatic denial in your situation.


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## KAS (Jul 5, 2016)

Thanks all!

MiamiVice - if I'm denied I probably won't bother appealing, I'll just wait a couple years and try again. It's not THAT big a deal to me. Good to know it never falls off my record, I thought it was basically erased after 6 years but I guess that's just when it stops affecting my insurance rates?

Tuna - I'm not 100% sure, but I'm never sure of anything. What I can tell you is that I've been shooting on and off with friends and family since I was 9 or 10 (I'm now 30), was trained in gun safety with the boy scouts, again in highschool, plus the NRA course required to apply for a carry permit. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I'd do in some given situations, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't regularly carry even if I got LTC-A ALP. I've owned a few pellet guns (not even close to the same, I know, but they can still put out an eye or kill someone, and must be treated with the same respect) and practice muzzle and trigger discipline religiously even when using them for pest control around the yard. I'm not a "hold my beer and watch this" slack jawed yokel or afraid of weapons, I treat them as weapons and tools and handle them with the respect they are due. In most circumstances I'd rather stand back and observe a situation rather than running in unprepared, guns blazing, and possibly make things worse. I'm not sure all of this makes me "ready" for this much responsibility, but I feel it helps. You won't see me on the evening news as a result of this. I would have applied for my permits half a decade ago, but house renovations and auto maintenance/gearhead stuff were already occupying my budget and time, so I never got around to it. My GF cares about shooting more than I do, so priorities have changed a bit now.

Truck - understood, and agreed. NEShooters' thread about gun licensing in your massachusetts town lists my town in green, and my GF's license application was easy and went through within a few weeks even though she'd just recently moved from the other side of the country. The only reason I'm even worried at all is because of that one "have you ever been charged with" question, but it sounds like it won't be an issue.

mpd61 - I've seen that thread, but thanks! Great resource, I should probably join up over there. Been occasionally reading the NEShooters forum since about 2008.

Thanks again to all. I've probably been overanalyzing this, I tend to do that.


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## MiamiVice (May 2, 2002)

Was this a successful ask a cop, with a polite person asking a legitimate question, not bitching that the trooper wasn't wearing his hat etc????? Someone should lock this unicorn of a thread immediately!!!

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