On my trip to Maryland, I stopped at the Berks County, PA Courthouse. No, I didn’t have to post bail. No, I didn’t have to plead my case before a judge.

I stopped in to apply for a Pennsylvania firearms license.

Pennsylvania is a bit odd in that the state sets the requirements for a license, but the county sheriffs administer the law. Some county sheriffs will not process an application for a non resident, some will. It’s entirely up to the sheriff. Most of them will tell you what their policy is on their web site. They all seem to have web sites, which makes sense since sheriff is an elected office.

The Berks Sheriff posts his rules as well as a fillable PDF applications. Which makes it easy to fill out the paperwork ahead of time.

I stopped at the main courthouse, about 15 minutes before the office closes so that the deputy can go to lunch. He was very polite, but told me that he wouldn’t get to my application until after lunch. “No problem., I said, “I’ll just go get lunch and come back.”

“Why don’t you go to the sub station at the airport? That office doesn’t close until 2:00 PM.”

Which is what I did. I walked in, handed my application, a $20.00 bill, my drivers license and home state pistol license to the deputy. He tapped some information into his computer, which was probably so he could run a background check on me. After a couple of minutes he directed me to stand in front of the digital camera. He snapped a picture, told me to sign a pin pad device, and popped a license blank into the printer.

My a minute or so later, my brand new Pennsylvania license popped out of the printer, was run through the laminator, and handed to me.

License good for 5 years.

10 minutes from the time I walked in until my license was in my hand.

$20.00 for the license.

I’d say it doesn’t get any easier, but my son called me today and told me he renewed his Alabama concealed carry permit.

4:07. That is four minutes and seven seconds to renew his permit.