Until visiting your website the most blatant disregard by a Missouri LEO for the law which I'd encountered in this state was that of Oregon county Sheriff Tim Ward a few years ago when he bluntly told me to my face, "That may be what the the law says but that's not how we do it here [in Oregon county.] "  His statement was in response to my having just told him that his requirement for a firearm's make, model, and serial number prior to his issuance of a permit to acquire a handgun was in violation of the language of Missouri law. Arguably, since we had no actual copy of RSMo 571.090 readily available at that moment he had only my word and was responding as such until he could verify or disprove my claim.  You, on the other hand, have no such excuse.

Your website's page on the criteria for applying for a handgun acquisition permit
<http://www.showme.net/scottcountysheriff/firearm_permits.htm> 
clearly illustrates the incongruence between Missouri law and the additional hurdles you have chosen to impose upon the citizens of your county. You have the links to the actual law right there on your website 
<http://www.moga.state.mo.us./statutes/C500-599/5710090.HTM>.
Ignorance of the law is obviously no excuse in your case.

I am referring specifically to your posted requirements that "The purchaser must provide the make, model, caliber, and serial number of the firearm to be purchased.  Purchaser must also provide a full name and address for the individual or business selling the firearm." That requirement is in direct conflict with RSMo 571.090, also posted on your site, to whit:

"....2. Applications shall be made to the sheriff of the county in which the applicant resides. An application shall be filed in writing, signed and verified by the applicant, and shall state only the following: the name, Social Security number, occupation, age, height, color of eyes and hair, residence and business addresses of the applicant, the reason for desiring the permit, and whether the applicant complies with each of the requirements specified in subsection 1 of this section." 

Read that list of required information again.  Take special note of the word "only" in the second sentence. According to my dictionary that word means, "solely; no other than."  In other words, you can legally require that information but no more. Oh, the next paragraph does allow you to ask for a driver's license but that's it. As for the extra information you're demanding, well, that's addressed in two later paragraphs:

"4. The permit shall recite the date of issuance, that it is invalid after thirty days, the name and address of the person to whom granted, the nature of the transaction, and a physical description of the applicant. The applicant shall sign the permit in the presence of the sheriff.

"5. If the permit is used, the person who receives the permit from the applicant shall return it to the sheriff within thirty days after its expiration, with a notation thereon showing the date and manner of disposition of the firearm and a description of the firearm including the make, model and serial number. The sheriff shall keep a record of all applications for permits, his action thereon, and shall preserve all returned permits."

Obviously, the intent of this law is that the applicant be given an "open" permit enabling him/her to shop for and buy a handgun during the thirty day period following the issuance of the permit.  Just as clearly, the seller, not the purchaser, is required by law to fill in the make, model, and serial number of the firearm during the thirty day period subsequent to the issuance of the permit.  To require otherwise is to act other than as the law requires.

Words come to mind for an officer of the law who chooses to ignore and/or violate the law when it pertains to him but enforce and even expand upon it when it comes to the public. Hopefully those words don't apply to you.  Hopefully you inherited a process when you became sheriff and have simply never paused to examine whether or not it met the letter of the law during the ensuing 26 years of your tenure as sheriff.  Hopefully you'll correct that situation now that it's been pointed out to you.

I'm copying this email to a state-wide, nay, internetwide firearms rights forum. That's where I learned of your website and you're blatant dissonance with the very law linked on that website. You may be assured that I will forward any reply you may wish to make to that same forum. 

Thank you and may God bless you.

Christopher A. Meissen
West Plains, MO 65775

County population  of 40,000 folks in 17,000 "housing units" on 420 square miles.    In the 1996 Proposition B referendum, over 62% of the 8948 voters said YES. 

Watch here to see if the Sheriff complies with Missouri law...