The number of licensed concealed weapons holders in Florida is expected to top 1 million next week, state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam told reporters Wednesday.
Doubling since 2007, the number of concealed weapons license holders will top 5 percent of Florida’s 19.1 million residents in a state that is number one nationally in licenses issued.
“Clearly it is a popular law and has been taken advantage of by a large number of Floridians who have acted responsibly,” Putnam said.
Florida has been licensing concealed weapons since 1987, when state officials took over authority from counties that had a patchwork of requirements regarding who could carry and what was needed to qualify for a license. Since then, more than 2 million licenses have been issued.
License holders are predominantly male and most are over 31 years old, with more than 219,000 at least 65 years old. While still a relative minority, representing about 20 percent of all license holders, more than 200,000 women also have licenses to carry.
Putnam said that of the 2 million issued, only 0.3 percent have been revoked.
“Floridians who are obtaining these licenses are obtaining them for the right reason and are using them in an appropriate way,” Putnam told reporters.
Gun advocates have long argued the legal gun ownership is a deterrent to crime, a message that was repeated Wednesday by Marion Hammer, executive director of United Sportsmen of Florida and former president for the National Rifle Association.
“Criminals commit crimes, but they aren’t stupid,” Hammer said. “They don’t want to get shot.”
Overall gun sales are also up. On Tuesday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey, said the agency processed more criminal background checks for firearms on the Black Friday shopping day than any single day in the agency’s history.
Background checks are required for all gun purchases. Persons seeking concealed weapons licenses must undergo further screening and submit fingerprints.
A concealed weapons permit now takes a little over a month to obtain, down from more than 15 weeks only a few years ago. About 10 percent of licenses issued in Florida are for out-of-state residents.
–Michael Peltier, News Service of Florida
MikeyLikesIt says
Smart criminals should be afraid, very afraid! Dumb criminals will be shot if they pick the wrong victim. The odds of picking on an unarmed victim are decreasing every day. Now one out of every twenty potential victims can shoot back. Hopefully, these kinds of statistics should make them think twice.
Magicone says
Everyone knows that you don.t have to have a licence to own a gun. Everyone knows that a convicted felon is not allowed to own a gun. Everyone ought to know that a felon or anyone with the money can buy a gun in a newspaper ad without undergoing a criminal check, I have seen them at yard sales !! There is a gun shop here in Palm Coast that is raffling an automatic rifle very soon. Everyone says that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. I want to set the record straight……….Its the bullets that are killing people. Put an outrageous tax on ammunition, make people register to buy ammunition. Crime and murder rate will drop dramatically. Hide and Watch.
Mamabear says
Which gun shop? I’d like to buy a ticket..
tulip says
Why is it that out of state people can get a gun license in Florida? Why wouldn’t they get it in their own state they live in?
Bax says
This is generally due to the individual having a concealed carry permit in their home state but when this individual travels to other states do not recognize the other state’s carry permit. This is a common situation for people that may be working away from their home state but may want to be able to legally carry a firearm in the state they are visiting. So essentially it is a way to acknowledge the host state’s laws and to ensure that the individual is not breaking the law. Hope that makes sense…. Its late and I am sleepy…..
Mamabear says
Because not all states honor the neighboring states permit. If you work in multiple states or live part time in different states and want to legally carry you might need more than one permit..
R Section Mack says
They can only get a permit recognized in Florida. Many of them are snowbirds from states that prevent citizens from carrying.
DoubleGator says
I think the Beatles expressed it best “Happiness is a warm gun”.
Ben Blakely says
The people have spoken and have expressed their intention to take responsibility for their safety by taking required gun education and lawfully obtaining concealed carry weapons.
If you foolishly rely on the government to protect you, you had better be sure your life insurance is paid for.
Anita says
“If you foolishly rely on the government to protect you, you had better be sure your life insurance is paid for. ”
Then maybe you can tell me why we’re paying taxes to support an “ineffectual” police force? In addition, we could tax gun owners (per gun) to generate more funds for things like paving roads and street lights on the west side of the county (and, oh, yes, things like education).
Anonymous says
we could tax gun owners (per gun) to generate more funds for things like paving roads and street lights on the west side of the county (and, oh, yes, things like education).
we should over tax the people that stop at star bucks and text while they are driving…. they actually kill more people per yr than (concealed carry permit) gun owners do.
Stevie says
“Its the bullets that are killing people. ”
How can a bullet kill if a person doesn’t pull the trigger?
The first two people at a crime scene are the victim and the perp. The cops can’t stop the perps. they can’t prevent crime. They mop up and collect data then pursue the perp after the crime has taken place. An armed victim can stop the crime and save the cops a lot of trouble and time.
Ronnie says
Gimmie back…..Gimmie back my bulllets. Put em back where they belong .
Lynyrd Skynyrd
[email protected] says
I am sure that before the gun shop turns over the weapon to the winner they will require a background ck.
Liana G says
What cops know’ by Connie Fletcher. 85% of murders are committed by someone the victim knows – boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, family member. Most murders among family members occur during the holidays. A armed robber will do less harm than an unarmed robber.
Beware of those advocating an unarmed society their intentions are sinister. Machiavelli wrote, “When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”
Guns don’t kill people, psychopaths with guns kill people. And the American Gov’t just loves turning inncoent young people into evil psychopaths.
Why would the son of a kindergarten teacher target his mother’s classroom, killing 20 innocent children? Call me paranoid and distrustful of …. but this is seriously major distraction … similar to the the suspicion surrounding the Batman movie shooting…
Nancy N. says
All those statistics that you just spouted about 85% of murders actually support gun control. If there’s a gun in a house, it’s most likely usage will be against someone within that house. Do you think that Kasandra Perkins would be dead after having a heated argument with Jovan Belcher if there hadn’t been a gun in the house at the time?
Machiavelli isn’t exactly a great role model to be quoting to make your point. You do realize that when most people say something is “Machiavellian” they don’t mean it as a compliment, right?
You are quite the conspiracy theorist Liana. It must be exhausting looking for all those boogie men lurking around every corner.
Dorothea says
@Liana G
Nancy N. made a great response to you, so I will only correct a few of your non-facts. The mother was not a kindergarten teacher at the school; she was a divorced mother looking for work. She did work as a teacher’s aide at the school three years ago. Her son shot her in the face at point blank range in their home, not at the school. Governments don’t make psychopaths and not all murderers are psychopaths. Many gun murders are committed by very angry people who just happened to have a gun nearby.
Stevie says
“If there’s a gun in a house, it’s most likely usage will be against someone within that house.”
Please post your statistical proof of the above. Don’t just attempt a statement of fact without proof. I could replace the word gun and insert baseball bat, knife, broken bottle, rope, fork, ice pick, chair, any pair of strong hands etc.
” Do you think that Kasandra Perkins would be dead after having a heated argument with Jovan Belcher if there hadn’t been a gun in the house at the time?”
That depends on the context of the situation. She was apparently threatening a paternity suit and to what degree she was arguing her point makes a difference. Was she civil or was she indignant? If indignant, then how far did she take it? Until the man snapped? If he snapped, then all he needed to was grab her throat and squeeze and shake her violently, or pick up anything lying around and beat her, or stab her, etc. He would have killed her anyway.
I submit to you we live in a culture where cohabitation outside of wedlock and responsibility has something to do with the above context. The government even supports this lifestyle through welfare and food stamps. So on it goes you reap what you sow. There just may be some merit to the conspiracy theory.
Magicone says
@Stevie…….I stand corrected its not the bullets that are killing people, it is the people that are putting these bullets in a weapon and pulling the trigger. You missed my point…..If bullets were a little harder to come by than there might be a decline on all these multiple shootings like the one that happened yesterday. Some agency needs to regulate who is getting all these bullets and magazines that will hold way more DEADLY BULLETS that the gun was designed to hold !!!
Ben Blakely says
The continuing dogma of the liberal lefties who want to remove ALL power and choice from the public.
Like Hitler, Like Lenin, Like Stalin, the left wants to disempower the public so they may exercise complete control over them. Make the public helpless is the left’s ultimate dream.
England outlawed guns and crime rates have increased. Restricted access to guns in countries like the UK and Japan leads to far more crime against unarmed citizens.
Gun-control laws don’t work. What is worse, they act perversely. Criminals laugh at the laws and will always be able to obtain weapons even if they have to steal them from the police to obtain them.
Brian says
Exactly! Just watched a report from London, police confiscate 400+ firearms from criminals every month! And this is in the capitol of a country that has had a total gun ban for 15 years! Gun restrictive laws are ludicrous, and their proponents are either painfully ignorant, or just sadistic… it’s a bad joke.
Magicone, Besides my reply to your original statement, there are TONS of people that pack their own ammunition.
“Bullets kill people”? So do big sticks. Raising taxes on anything is only going to be detrimental. Bigger government is ALWAYS horrible for citizens. And an outrageous ammo tax will only prevent good honest people from protecting themselves and their families. If ammo is so expensive that a person can’t afford to become familiar with his weapon, he/she has a MUCH lower chance of using said weapon effectively. If you’re watching the major media to get your perspective, stop! They are making your retarded… Check reliable sources for facts and statistics. Gun control ALWAYS causes an increase in violent crime. Increased legal gun ownership ALWAYS causes a decrease in violent crime. The only new law that should be passed (and I say this reluctantly) is that a private seller needs to be held accountable for selling a gun to someone that has committed a crime with it (accessory perhaps?). Unless said private seller first makes sure the gun becomes registered in the new owners name. However I don’t like the idea of the government knowing who has what at all times. Maybe a third party (NRA?) should hold all the records and release to law enforcement under warrant only.
Anmita, You people and your taxes! Aren’t we taxed enough already??! I detect a bit of bitterness in your tone for gun owners, but I bet you’d be happy as heck to see one of us standing behind you or your loved one as some thug tries to murder or rob you. The police force isn’t ineffectual at all! They just aren’t omnipresent! Someone breaks into your home, and you call the cops, they get there in 5-10 minutes, and your whole family could already be dead. I’m rapidly losing faith in the intelligence of the average American… why can’t more people follow the painfully obvious logic here?
Mike says
Growing up in New Hampshire most of my life where any law abiding citizen can obtain a permit to carry the crime rate was below average, our neighboring state of Massachusetts with strict gun laws has a crime rate well above the National average. I wonder why. I was in the Army as Military Police, worked as a Corrections Officer and got to see the criminals up close and personal and they all said the same thing. They would rob the person who looked the most vulnerable. If they thought that they were carrying a gun they wouldn’t even take a chance of approaching them. I had a permit to carry concealed in NH and also in Florida. Do you really think that the criminals wont have access to guns if we outlaw them? It will be the law abiding people that wont have them. I can go days without ever seeing a Law Enforcement Officer. I don’t want to put myself or my family at risk just so I can walk around in la la land and pretend that there isn’t evil people out there. We as a society need to not have our police worrying about someone smoking
marijuana so they can concentrate on the real criminals. Also 85 percent of criminal after getting caught go back to prison, so much for rehabilitation .
John Clouser says
It continues to amaze me at the number of false, as well as uneducated, and erroneous comments people make. I would suggest any number of citizens who “think” they can comment intelligently on hand gun use, hand gun accidents, “automatic” guns being raffled, or killing by guns in the home, to actually take a hand gun course. And really, make taxes high on ammunition? You think that will keep ammunition out of the hands of the bad folks? Do you realize the millions of responsible hand gun owners, and CCW license holders there are? We, who take the responsible action to practice, firing thousands of rounds of ammunition annually. So your answer is to make it more difficult and more expensive to practice……practice that ultimately helps to keep unintended deaths or injuries from happening in the event a gum owner is forced to use their hand gun, or rifle, to defend, family, or innocent members of the public? Look, bad things happen in this world, and that’s whether you drive a car, motor cycle, or simply walk down the street. There will always be folks who do irresponsible things that cost lives in almost any aspect of life. Taking away freedoms from citizens has never been the answer.