NRA Lawsuit against Washington State

[waverace]

If they wont hold to the injunction then I guess the NRA has to press the issue , or at least the court that issued the injunction.

 

[Gungnir]

Actually we could appeal the Judge Martinez, who issued the injunction.

If they're not performing according to the letter of the injunction, then the DOL is in contempt of court.

 

[waverace]

exactly , are they above the law ?

 

[Gungnir]

I hope that's rhetorical.

 

[Gungnir]

Damnit, I'm disappointed, got a letter today, from the DOL, but it was just for my Tabs renewal...

So I called DOL today, and spoke to "Jenny", who was incredibly nice, (makes me wonder whether she's new) especially what she told me.

Apparently my AFL was approved March 5th, and sent to the printers same day. Interesting thing is this, KCSO sent it to the DOL on Friday 27th, when I spoke with Zandra on Monday the 2nd she had it, was in process and said point blank it would be at print by end of the day, so what happened to cause the delay?

So in effect it's been in the "post" since the 2nd.

Matt, you might want to let your contacts know that there seem to be weird internal delays internal to the DOL for AFL's. They might want to discuss with the Judge to ensure that the terms of the Injunction are being followed. If the SAF/NRA have enough people with issues, then I'm pretty sure the Judge will be upset enough to call the DOL to task on this, and improve throughput.

 

[zaharia]

"be AT print by the end of the day" will not necessarily BE printed by the end of the day. Be happy, at least you know yours is approved and you should have it soon. From what you wrote earlier, seems like the rest of us who didn't get "pushed" through like you may have an indefinite wait.

 

[Gungnir]

be AT print by the end of the day" will not necessarily BE printed

Yes, but it went to print on the 5th, a full 3 days later... Yes, I know some of you are having worse problems. My suggestion is to call Anne in KCSO records, and ask where your application is. At the same time call the DOL, and explain that according to the terms of RCW 9.41.170 the background check will be completed within 30 days. To comply with the terms of the injunction the FBI background check is irrelevant,

Department of Licensing shall:
a. promptly resume processing applications for alien firearm licenses;
b. issue alien firearms licenses to otherwise qualified applicants notwithstanding
the Department’s or any local law enforcement agency’s inability to perform or
complete a background and/or fingerprint check required by RCW § 9.41.170.
c. upon application, renew or issue alien firearm licenses to Plaintiffs Adrian J.
Coombes, Philip Grady, and such other lawful permanent resident aliens, including
members of Plaintiffs NRA and SAF, who may apply pursuant to RCW § 9.41.170 if they are otherwise qualified for licensure.

That they should be fulfilling the timescales laid out in the RCW, with or without background information. If they complain about this, then let them have it, Washington State is unconstitutionally restricting your 2nd Amendment rights as applied through the 14th amendment (equal protection), and confirmed in the Civil Rights Act for equal protection under law.

You could explain that given the current Federal court injunction, and circumstances around the RCW, and the Heller decision, that what you are doing is more or less being polite. I doubt that enforcement of the RCW for any LPR would hold up in court. I'm not recommending it, but it would be a damn fast way for someone to blow the lid off this stupid situation (not me, I'm going through Naturalization, and wouldn't want to jeopardize that at this point).

I've attached the initial injunction filing, so you can check it out for yourselves, it's already passed 5 legal tests including a "likely to succeed" test.

 

[Gungnir]

Oh just to point out, they're failing to enforce section b of the injunction. KCSO have proven to be incapable of fulfilling the background check within the timescale defined.

 

[AGY]

So, I called my police department and they did not forward my application to the DOL until today. Seems there were waiting for the fingerprint card to come back, which did not. Now I will wait for the printing process.

 

[MD_Willington]

I did send an email to Adrian today, I have not received an email as of yet... I emailed him from work though.

 

[dtrBG]

I emailed the attorney, hopefully he is able to help out.

I called DOL as well - after 40 days they don't have the background check and aren't planing to issue me the license.

 

[MD_Willington]

Reply from Adrian.

Matt;


I have heard that King Co Sheriff’s Office has recently sent a large batch of completed background checks to DOL. That is they had “…batched them up” so that caused a delay and so their in baskets at DOL must be full.

There would be no point contacting the lawyers until/unless you suspect deliberate foot dragging. I am as sure as I can be that the staff at DOL are “…on side” with all this and as helpful as they can be.

 

[Gungnir]

Hmm...

I'm not sure I agree with the "suspect deliberate foot dragging" I think that reminding the DOL of their responsibility under the injunction whether that be deliberate, or incidental should at least be considered.

Yes the Staff at the DOL might be onside, but unaware of the terms of the injunction, although I know at least one has heard exactly the terms from me . Whether they believe it, or are following their leadership opinions is something that we don't know.

 

[user3214]

What's strange is:
DOL wasn't issuing for 3 years or more these licenses, because it's against the law for them to see the results.

The judge ordered - issue the licenses regardless you can't do the background check.


Now why is the police actually doing the background check it's still against the law and the judge didn't say it's ok to do that? So DOL should be issuing the licenses right now without the background checks.

 

[Gungnir]

DOL wasn't issuing for 3 years or more these licenses, because it's against the law for them to see the results.

Not local law enforcement FBI reports. They wouldn't accept an Ok/Not Ok result from local Law enforcement and needed a summary report, which was against FBI policy, so the FBI blocked background checks from local LEA's for AFL's.

The state then attempted to circumvent this by declaring the DOL a LEA, to which the FBI raised a one finger salute. Explaining calling something a LEA does not make it so.

However the injunction states that the background check should be performed, but if results cannot be produced in a timely fashion (as defined in RCW 9.41.170) then the license should be issued forgoing the background check.

 

[MD_Willington]

The local LEA's can get the same info and just tell the DOL "Uh huh" or "No way"... the last part on the back page is that part.

Seems silly... but its their deal...

 

[Gungnir]

Sure, not arguing, was explaining the issue that led to the DOL stopping issuance of AFL's and how they're now supposed to perform them.

KCSO is actually getting FBI info, but via fingerprints, they send 'em off to the FBI and see what the FBI says. Which could be why KCSO is taking so long.

 

[zaharia]

Fingerprinting through FBI doesn't take so long. I and family applied for Nexus pass cards (at border) and fingerprinting results from FBI were returned in minutes while we waited.

 

[Gungnir]

It does when they send the fingerprints by mail.

KCSO cannot electronically process AFL background checks with the FBI, I don't know about any other Jurisdiction but the Records Manager (Anne) I spoke to was quite adamant about that, so they're processing them by sending a print out of your fingerprints, to the J Edgar Hoover building (or wherever they deal with them) and seeing what's turned up.

 

[zaharia]

Okay, didn't know they were still in the stone age. I was thinking CSI, not Fred & Barney locked in the file room.

 

[Gungnir]

They have Electronic facilities for FBI, but my suspicion is that they're not using it as a loophole to avoid the FBI refusing to supply data.

 

[zaharia]

Gungnir
Surely you must have received your AFL by now? This sucks, I keep seeing some firearms that I would like to purchase on Gunbroker and I have to pass them up. It won't be 30 days for me until the 20th this coming week. Looks like that will come and go too before I get an AFL.

 

[dtrBG]

You might get it faster than some of us, I applied Jan 29 and I am still waiting.
I believe some one here got theirs after a week, so you never know.

 

[dtrBG]

Anyone with a new AFL care to show any new purchases

 

[MD_Willington]

Google Remington 581.. I picked one up.

I have not bought anything other than that, my youngest spent the weekend in the hospital... Bills to pay!

Here is one thing I brought home, it was at my friends down the road while I waited for a new license.