[akulahawk]

I just posted this and hopefully it'll make it past moderation (I didn't flame anyone too badly, I hope):

Let me begin with this: as my name indicates, I am a Sacramento County resident. Up here, CCW issuance is very much driven by local politics and less about someone's individual need for a license.

I have been following the events in Orange County as I fear that given enough time, under Sheriff Hutchens, that County could become very much like Sacramento County or Los Angeles County in this particular area.

When she took office, Sheriff Hutchens had a lot of different things she had to take care of... and instead of tackling some of those issues, she went after the CCW License issue. At the time, there were about 1100 Licenses issued. Of those, about 40 were almost certainly politically issued. Instead of reviewing those and revoking them, she instead decided (with several fits and starts) to revoke about half of those Licenses, on the claim that those Licenses already issued and active did not meet her new Good Cause criteria. The then went about sending letters out threatening revocation or allowing an early expiration of the license. That took a while.

That process is now nearly complete. In one year, Orange County has "lost" about 300 CCW Licenses and the holders of those licenses did nothing wrong to lose them, simply a policy change occurred.

Now here's what scares me. In Sacramento, generally those with political connections will get a CCW issued. There's only about 250 licenses issued here.Their Good Cause is basically nothing more than "I want one" and "I know the Sheriff". I have heard of people with fairly compelling Good Cause being denied up here. There are non-politically connected CCW Licenses that have been issued, but that's not the norm and very few new applicants have been approved in the last couple years. I don't want Orange County to become like Sacramento.

Sheriff Hutches certainly has a LOT on her plate these days. Law Abiding Citizens carrying weapons who bear the full brunt of liability for their use (not the Sheriff or her Department) should be the least of her worries.