I have not received my permit, and I don't know if it will have restrictions, but as I posted in the "welcome newbies" thread, I have it on good authority that my LTC-A is approved and I will be receiving it shortly. Nonetheless, this is my experience with Dedham to date.
I submitted my application a little over six weeks ago. The officer that is processing my paperwork told me that it's extremely rare for the chief to deny an application if the BG check comes back clean. He also mentioned that restrictions are almost unheard of. Take that with a grain of salt...
That being said, the officer that is currently processing applications is not the usual or permanent guy. The officer that was processing them was let go a couple of months ago as part of a big layoff in the Dedham PD (or so I was told).
The application process went smoothly. I was told to call back in a few days if I hadn't been contacted to set up an appointment for an interview with the chief. I never heard from them, so after about a week I called back and set the appointment. I went in a couple of weeks ago to meet with the chief, but he was out that day, so I met with some other guy (deputy chief? *shrug*).
This guy did not seem too keen on citizens carrying.
He asked a number of seemingly standard questions (how long I've lived in Dedham, married or single, any kids, etc.). He mentioned a number of times that there will likely be restrictions. Interestingly, the way he stated this seemed a little weird. He also looked at me strangely after each iteration of the statement, which leads me to believe he could have been testing me for a reaction. I simply "nodded and smiled," as the saying goes.
He then said, "Under your reason for wanting a permit, you wrote, 'All Lawful Purposes.' What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure I understand the question."
"Well, all you wrote was, 'All Lawful Purposes.' That doesn't tell us anything."
"Well, I'm still a bit confused by this question, but I'm saying that I want the permit for anything and everything that the law allows. All the purposes that are lawful."
"Can you expand on that?"
"I guess I can try. Home protection, personal protection, target shooting...maybe a little bit of hunting. Anything that's legal I would like to have the option to do should I choose to."
"Okay, well for future reference, 'All Lawful Purposes' doesn't tell us anything. It's very vague."
(I bit my tongue and refrained from explaining to him that ALP is the exact opposite of vague; it's very a very specific 'D. All of the above' answer...it's all-encompassing...)
At one point during the conversation, he actually said, "We can't have people just wandering the streets with guns."
Otherwise, the interview went well and like I said, I have been told by a friend that my permit should be in any day now. Hopefully the interview guy was either testing me for a response, or was simply using the opportunity to pontificate his own personal [STRIKE]ignorance[/STRIKE] beliefs.
Here are some smarmy responses I had cooked up in my brain to the 'wandering the streets' statement:
- You mean except criminals, right?
- Oh, sorry for any confusion, officer. I'm not applying to be a
cop, I just want a permit.
- How many people do you know that have the time and the inclination to wander around, armed or not? Most people I know are usually
going somewhere.
- I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but is there a requirement once a permit has been issued to wander? I'm not really interested in wandering, and I want to be clear on what's expected of me once a permit has been issued.
- Oh, well I’m the type of guy who will never settle down. Where pretty girls are, well you know that I’m around. I kiss ’em and I love’em ’cause to me they’re all the same...oh, sorry. I love that song.