CCW license background check

I went and looked at the laws for North Dakota and found this:
1. The director of the bureau of criminal investigation shall issue a license to carry a firearm or dangerous weapon concealed upon review of an application submitted to the director by a resident or nonresident citizen of the United States if the following criteria are met:

Notice the part I highlighted? Particularly the underlined portion.

It appears that if you are not a US citizen, you are not eligible to obtain a CCW. See this State site and look at the regs yourself.
 
hmm. doesn't look good :(

Does the fact that aliens are not specifically mentioned in there mean they definitely won't issue the license?

Edit: I knew I had seen something before to make me think it was possible:
http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/NDSL.pdf

Looks like the law has changed since that was put together.

Another edit: I just noticed that the NRA link above says "As of June 2010". The law would not have changed since then because the legislature is not in session this year. NRA must have paraphrased it I suppose.
 
Last edited:
Divil, if you look at the pdf for 62.1-04, you will see that the law I cited was valid up to 2011. Reading further, it even lists what the law will be in 2011.

Notice also that the permit will become a 2-tiered permitting system.

Given all of that, the NRA's information is out of date.

Now, since the current law says you must be a US citizen, then being an alien, of any kind, will simply kill your ability to obtain the permit. Unless...

You would have to file a civil suit based upon the ND Constitution, Article I, Section 1, which states:
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
Section 1. All individuals are by nature equally free and independent and have certain
inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring,
possessing and protecting property and reputation; pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness;
and to keep and bear arms for the defense of their person, family, property, and the state, and for
lawful hunting, recreational, and other lawful purposes, which shall not be infringed.

It states "individuals" not citizens. Therefore the statute in question is violative of the rights of individuals. Call the SAF and see if they're interested in funding the challenge.
 
Look man, simple question. DO YOU HAVE A GREEN CARD? If you're not a natural-born citizen of the good ol' USA by birth, you still have the right to be here, right? I don't know your personal situation, but I know those ND folks. They get pretty strict. Citizen/non-citizen? Which are you? If not, don't even think about it. If you're good, apply for the CCW. If you're GTG, now worries, dig? If not, you shouldn't be applying for one in the first place. You think that's bad, try coming to Mississippi, I've been here for 14 yrs. and I still don't get a break!

SSGT C. Jackson(FORECON)
1/8/2 USMCR (Ret.)
 
Last edited:
"Do you have a green card?" Sorry man, it's a standing joke around my house. The last time my wife and I took a flight from MS to FL, I was scrutinized closely by airport security. Jo and I laugh about it to this day. Evidently, I was screened because the information I put on my passport red-flagged with the DHS. Despite my "pink" card (retired military), I still had to take my shoes off, get hustled into the security office and got shook down. The funniest question out of these guys was, "Sir, do you have a green card?" Despite my embarrassment and obvious aggravation, I replied in true Marine Corps fashion, I couldn't help myself, " No Sahib, please do not take the explosive out of my toothpaste!" Needless to say, this did NOT go over well. What could I say, I was ****** off at the time but I had to interject a certain amount of sick humor. I mean, come on guys, a six foot four inch tall American Indian? Back in the day, you'd have to stack these guys on top of each others' shoulders. It was funny as hell to me, the officers at the airport didn't see it that way, though. When I got done with what they called a butt-chewin', I got my s**t together and rejoined my already irritated wife.
"What the hell was that all about?" she demanded.
"Aww Hell, no big thing," I responded, "I don't think airport security likes the color pink, we should drive next time."

For the record, the green card deal was just my own thing, sorry man.
 
Last edited:
As a side note, the state could NOT use NICS for the background check anyway. NICS is for the exclusive use of FFL's when transferring a firearm.

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics/enroll.htm

Use of NICS

* Authorized use of the NICS is limited to the purpose of obtaining information on whether receipt of a firearm by a prospective transferee would violate federal or state law.
* FFLs, their officers, employees, agents, and/or other representatives are permitted to request background checks of the NICS only for the authorized purpose.
* Accessing or using the NICS, or permitting access or use of the NICS by another, for any unauthorized purpose is a violation of federal law, sanctions for which may include criminal prosecution; a civil fine not to exceed $10,000, and/or cancellation of NICS inquiry privileges.

Access to NICS

* Calls to the NICS Operation Center may be initiated from any telephone including pay and/or cellular phones. However, FFLs should understand the risk of call interception and monitoring when using a cellular phone.
* When enrolling in the NICS, the FFL will select a code word consisting of six to ten alphabetical and/or numeric characters.
* FFLs are not required to change their code word; conversely, a code word will remain active indefinitely if there is no request for change. However, FFLs are encouraged to change their code words if they suspect that unauthorized persons have gained knowledge of the code word, or that authorized personnel are misusing the system.
* FFLs shall limit knowledge of their code word to themselves, their officer(s), employee(s), agent(s), and/or other representative(s) whose duties include performing background checks in compliance with the Gun Control Act, as amended.
 
As a side note, the state could NOT use NICS for the background check anyway. NICS is for the exclusive use of FFL's when transferring a firearm.

I know for a FACT that the New Mexico and Arizona DPS's do NICS checks in addition to the FBI fingerprint checks in their process of issuing CCW licenses.
 
so, I had given up on this thread once it emerged - apparently, that my state does not issue to non US citizens.

Now, I am not so sure - here's why: I was reading up on the CCW laws in other states, and came across the requirement in AZ that the applicant must be either a US citizen or a resident of the state. I thought this made more sense than simply banning non-citizens altogether, which I know has been ruled unconstitutional in the past (Chan vs. Troy).

Now, I happened to re-check the ND statute once again, because I wanted to see if there was specifically a provision saying no to non-citizens, or if it was just that the whole "shall issue" didn't apply to us. Here is the text:

62.1-04-03. (Effective through June 30, 2011) License to carry a firearm or
dangerous weapon concealed.
1. The director of the bureau of criminal investigation shall issue a license to carry a
firearm or dangerous weapon concealed upon review of an application submitted to
the director by a resident or nonresident citizen of the United States if the following
criteria are met:

Actually, comparing this to the AZ rule, I suspect this was intended to be read as "resident, or nonresident citizen" as opposed to "resident citizen or nonresident citizen". Technically, the way it's written should only be interpreted in sense of the 1st one above, and if they intended to include only citizens, both resident and non-resident, they should have used the word "citizen" twice.

Opinions? (I haven't gotten around to finding out who I can ask formally)
 
the answer seems obvious to me...

"The director of the bureau"....

I can't answer for N.D. but 6 years ago when i took my class here in S.C. one of the other folks in the class was not a citizen of the U.S. but had some kind of 'green' card.
 
Back
Top