Lawmakers and gun rights advocates are squabbling over who should have control of Florida’s concealed weapons permits. Internal reports from the Agriculture Department and an official review have highlighted problems with the current system.
The state Agriculture Commissioner is currently in charge of processing concealed weapons permit requests.
Commissioner Adam Putnam, a self-described “proud NRA sellout,” has greatly expanded the program under his leadership. Coupled with recent mass shootings, Putnam’s office saw a huge spike in applications, but the influx proved too much for the office to handle.
In June, the Tampa Bay Times reported [1]that for more than a year the state failed to run requests through a national background check database. After reviewing applications processed during that time, Putnam’s office retroactively revoked 310 permits.
This week, the Tampa Bay Times discovered [2]errors were more widespread than previously thought. An Auditor General’s report found Putnam did not disclose information to investigators, gave false information to the public and approved more erroneous licenses even after the problem was discovered.
To incoming Agriculture Commissioner Democrat Nikki Fried, that is a big problem.
"We need to do an audit of the department to figure out exactly what happened, why someone was able to not log in for 13 months, whether that could happen again," said Fried. "We need to make sure those holes are plugged.”
Fried campaigned on pushing for more gun regulations, and on checking the power of the state’s concealed weapons permit system. Part of the solution, she said, is moving permitting to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“Law enforcement is already so instrumental in the process, and that way you get politics out of
