It's ridiculous that people who want to apply/pick up permits and register guns have to endure hours-long waits in line. One of the best proposals that has come out is to allow permitting and registrations at all Oahu police stations but this is just in the petition stage. In the spirit of McDonald's method of handling a busy drive-through, here are some ideas to help speed up the process:
- Permit Process: Have roving staff walk around with clipboards, blank registration forms and pens, and distribute them to applicants, who can complete the forms while in line and have them ready when they get to the window. Collect people's IDs and photocopy them, too. This would save processing time.
- Registration: Have roving staff collect permits and IDs and photocopy them in advance of the registrant coming to the window.
- Extended Business Hours: Expand opening and closing business hours (6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) because there's obvious demand for permit/registration services.
- Extra staff could be hired to do these additional duties. I'm sure there are employees who could use the extra money to cover their holiday expenses. Pay them overtime as the taxes collected from these extra gun sales could help pay their wages.
Just my 2 cents to help reduce the backlog. To me, it's a bit irresponsible to "do nothing" or "say too bad to those who have to wait in long lines," especially since permitting and registration are services being paid for by the taxpayers.