GUNS
applying.
Felons or applicants with convictions for domestic violence or a record of drug or alcohol abuse are ineligible. Since July, Florida denied 6,430 people who sought permits.
Florida’s permit covers weapons, not just guns, including knives or stun guns. Permit-holders are still not allowed to carry guns in schools, post offices, court buildings, airport terminals, police stations or on university campuses.
Florida’s figures mean about 12% of the adult population here has a permit. Eleven other states have higher rates of permit-holders,
including Alabama and Utah.
The relatively high number of residents who can legally carry concealed guns in Florida generally doesn’t disturb anti-gun activists, since the backgrounds of permit-holders are scrutinized and they are required to participate in education and safety classes.
“I wish it was that process for every single person that got a firearm,” said Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. “Today, someone who shouldn’t have a gun can go to their second cousin and say ‘Hey, sell me that gun for $1,000 cash,’ and the law today does not deter that person from firearm.”
Wolf criticized what he described as the “wildly selling that unregulated and inconsistent” process to buy guns in Florida.
Democratic lawmakers
This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.