Floridas CWP

[aimhigh]

Florida Gun Permit Requests Jump 67%
By July 31, 607,977 Floridians Had Concealed-Weapon Permits

POSTED: Sunday, August 9, 2009
Handgun
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida is seeing a huge increase in applications for concealed weapon permits.

The state is on pace to handle 150,000 requests -- a 67 percent increase over 2008. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services was so overwhelmed that Commissioner Charles Bronson petitioned the Legislature for 61 temporary employees, giving him 202 workers to wade through a spring backlog of 90,000 requests.

That amount alone represents as many petitions as the state received in all of 2008.

"We're still sitting on about 50,000 applications," Bronson said. "We're getting in about 14,000 or 15,000 a month, and whenever they get a good slug out, they're getting another 15,000 in."

As of July 31, Florida had 607,977 concealed-weapon permit holders. Most permit requests are approved, so long as the person is over 21 and has no felony record.

Former National Rifle Association president Marion Hammer, who lobbied Florida legislators two decades ago to pass one of the country's first concealed-carry laws, says he's not surprised. The increase follows a law prohibiting businesses from banning guns in the workplace as long as employees lock them safely in cars. Hammer also says President Barack Obama's election and the Democrat Party's advances in Congress are alarming to gun rights advocates.

"There are over 6 million gun owners in Florida - people who care about freedom, who care about the 2nd Amendment, who are concerned about their ability to protect themselves," Hammer said.

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, calls those concerns "paranoia." As evidence, Hamm points to new legislation unopposed by Obama that allows guns in national parks.

"We've seen nothing out of this administration whatsoever," Hamm said. "Law-abiding citizens who are getting permits because they think the government is coming to take their guns away are just wrong -- it's an absurd, cartoonish myth."

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[retsupt99]