Yes, I know that there is an unprecedented demand right now for both FPID's and P2P's - a huge percentage increase over the same time last year. However, with the FARS system I don't think things have slowed down all that much. And if we are looking to point the finger at one element in the process, that is responsible for some of the delays that people are experiencing, I would have to say it is the NJSP/FIU.
Here is what I base my supposition on: I have praised my local PD, on this forum, for the quickness with which they issue new permits. And it's not just me, others on here serviced by the same PD have experienced similar performance. But the case in point was illustrated for me by an e-mail I received this morning. It was an e-mail from the NJSP that told me my 5 e-permits for which I had applied were "now available for execution."
Those permits were applied for, via FARS, on 11/10/2020. My PD notified me that I could come in and pay for them (thus activating them) on 11/18/2020. Yet I didn't receive the above-referenced e-mail until this morning (12/02/2020) - two full weeks after I was notified by the local PD. That e-mail also related that the expiration date on the permits was 02/16/2021 - which tells me they were actually approved on 11/16/2020 and my local PD notified me two days later.
Why was my local PD, not blessed with the automated systems of the NJSP, able to notify me two days after approval, but it took the NJSP - whose system should have spit-out an automated notification with no human intervention, two weeks for, essentially, the same notification? They were able to notify the local PD in a timely fashion, why isn't an applicant notification letter generated at the same time?
In this instance, it's no big deal as I still have a number of paper permits to be executed and now the 5 e-permits. But, if I had been a purchaser, who had a gun sitting at my FFL awaiting the issuance of an executable permit. I'd be pretty PO'd that two weeks passed from the actual executable date to the notification date. Or, if I was shopping and had not yet found what I wanted, or it wasn't currently available, that failure to notify just lopped two weeks of validity off my permits.
The move to automated systems is the correct one, but there is some human element that is still mucking up the works.
Adios,
Pizza Bob