concealed carry denied

[triumph_tech]

I applied for a carry permit in Bucks County and after over 30 days I got a registered letter from the sheriff stating the State Police had denied my application due to an "undisclosed reason". I am a little confused with the reason since I thought they had to give me a specific reason for the denial. I am 61 years old now, my only arrest was when I was 18, but I thought the charges had been dropped. I have concerns about sending the challenge request in case there has been a mistake in the records I don’t want to open myself for any further arrests. I went online with the state and requested my records but there is a 2-3 week delay in getting them sent. I only have 30 days to file the challenge but the letter I got yesterday has a date of the 15th on it. By the way , this is a great forum, lots of good info here!

[twency]

I applied for a carry permit in Bucks County and after over 30 days I got a registered letter from the sheriff stating the State Police had denied my application due to an "undisclosed reason". I am a little confused with the reason since I thought they had to give me a specific reason for the denial. I am 61 years old now, my only arrest was when I was 18, but I thought the charges had been dropped. I have concerns about sending the challenge request in case there has been a mistake in the records I don’t want to open myself for any further arrests. I went online with the state and requested my records but there is a 2-3 week delay in getting them sent. I only have 30 days to file the challenge but the letter I got yesterday has a date of the 15th on it. By the way , this is a great forum, lots of good info here!

I stand corrected. See GunLawyer's post below.

You won't be getting yourself in legal trouble by filing the appeal/challenge, go ahead and file it before it's too late. If there was any legal trouble for you you're already in it (e.g. if you lied on the application).

And yes, you are supposed to get a specific reason for the denial.

18 Pa.C.S. § 6109: Licenses
...
(g) Grant or denial of license.--Upon the receipt of an application for a license to carry a firearm, the sheriff shall, within 45 days, issue or refuse to issue a license on the basis of the investigation under subsection (d) and the accuracy of the information contained in the application. If the sheriff refuses to issue a license, the sheriff shall notify the applicant in writing of the refusal and the specific reasons. The notice shall be sent by certified mail to the applicant at the address set forth in the application.
...

[Exbiker]

Use participant name and bithdate under search type in all 3.

http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJ.aspx
http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CP.aspx
http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MC.aspx

[triumph_tech]

Use participant name and bithdate under search type in all 3.

http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJ.aspx
http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CP.aspx
http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MC.aspx

I checked these already, only found a traffic citation from last year. The trouble with these database searches is they don't go back far enough, Bucks county where I live is only good back to 1984.

[Shadow Heart]

Was actually going to ask this to those who know far better than I do, could someone be denied because of reference they used?

[BimmerJon]

Tell the sheriff he needs to give you the SPECIFIC reason per law and its embarrassing you have to tell him how to do his own job

[gnbrotz]

Tell the sheriff he needs to give you the SPECIFIC reason per law and its embarrassing you have to tell him how to do his own job

If it's a matter of failing PICS, the Sheriff may not know the exact reason for rejection. That's why appeal of a PICS failure goes to the PSP. Because they are the ones who will have to look into the matter further, to make a final determination.

[BimmerJon]

If it's a matter of failing PICS, the Sheriff may not know the exact reason for rejection. That's why appeal of a PICS failure goes to the PSP. Because they are the ones who will have to look into the matter further, to make a final determination.

The Sheriff should then state a PICS denial

[gnbrotz]

The Sheriff should then state a PICS denial

I agree. I guess I'm forgetting to account for my knowledge of the process. If the following happened to me

I got a registered letter from the sheriff stating the State Police had denied my application due to an "undisclosed reason".

I would understand that it was a PICS denial, because the PSP do not deny for any of the other reasons. Only Sheriffs (or the COP in Philly) do.

[GunLawyer001]

You won't be getting yourself in legal trouble by filing the appeal/challenge, go ahead and file it before it's too late. If there was any legal trouble for you you're already in it (e.g. if you lied on the application).

. . . .

Actually, you'd be doubling the chargeable counts. Every time you lie in writing, the "unsworn falsification" bit applies. If the first time is at an FFL, making false statements to an FFL is a Federal crime, so the Challenge form adds some new State crimes. If it's in the context of an LTCF application, it's probably just State crimes, but you still are in worse shape with 2 violations instead of 1.

If the prohibitor is very old or sorta subtle (like 20 year old unpaid speeding tickets from another state), then prosecution is unlikely; but still, there's always a potential incremental aggravation of your situation if you casually assert that you're clear, AFTER the PICS folks have given you new reason to doubt that.