CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Grass Roots North Carolina and Gun Owners of America already won a preliminary injunction against Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden but are at it again.
The group already won but said the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office is still not processing concealed handgun applications in the stipulated time of 45 days. They said they had some complaints from gun buyers saying delays were spanning more than a year.
"We can best call it whack-a-mole because he was doing permits earlier by requiring extensive delays for fingerprinting," Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, said. "When we got an injunction solving that problem, he shifted to a different means of delay. And now he's basically flooding the Veterans Administration with mental health requests for people that never served in the military."
Valone said the state's 99 other counties are complying with state law. He said the sheriff's office is exploiting a loophole by going to the Veterans Administration for records requests when they can submit requests from other local mental facilities.
He said flooding the VA is causing a backlog and ongoing delays.
The national instant criminal background check system, also known as NICS, has been used by gun shop owners to determine if someone can legally buy a firearm.
Valone said going to the VA makes the request redundant.
McFadden said the NICS system is just not enough. He told WCNC Charlotte's Jane Monreal in March he supports the second amendment but just wants common and good sense.
"I want to make sure that I will do everything that I can to make my community safe," McFadden said at the time. "Because once that trigger is pulled and some lives are taken, they're going to blame someone. And they often blame the sheriff."
"Almost everything that would disqualify an applicant will show up in NICS," Valone argued. "We've improved our reporting on involuntary commitments and occasions of mental illness. And all of that stuff is reported in the national instant background checks system."
However, McFadden said that NICS doesn't have every report by law enforcement.
"If you file reports on your husband for domestic abuse, but never had him arrested, pointing a gun at you and never have him arrested, that is not in NICS and that's not in any of the files that should be in NICS," McFadden said.
He said his deputies are simply looking at things that are often overlooked.
"If you go to a mental institution or veterans administration, and say something to your doctor in these files that, 'I have nightmares about killing someone or I have thoughts about killing someone,' will that be placed in NICS? Show me an example," McFadden said. "I will understand that."
The judge said Thursday morning that the statute is constitutional but the way the sheriff is using it is still in question.
WCNC Charlotte will be looking for the court to make a decision in the coming weeks.
Contact Jane Monreal at jmonreal@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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