Maybe all those northeasterners who move to Florida to spend their golden years around the shuffleboard courts at the Del Boca Vista know something. Or maybe they’ve just learned to value their freedoms. Reuters is reporting that “The number of active concealed weapons licenses in Florida, already home to more owners of such registered weapons than any other U.S. state, is expected to reach the 1 million mark next week, a state official said on Wednesday.” Not bad. But wait, there’s more! . . .
Applications for the permits in the state of 19.1 million people have doubled since 2007. Only 0.3 percent of the more than 2 million total permits issued since 1987 have been revoked, said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
Only .3 percent? Gee, that means the people who pass the background checks and make their way through the bureaucratic hoops erected to make keeping and bearing more difficult are an exceptionally responsible, law-abiding bunch. That’s so counterintuitive! Who could have predicted it?
Sunshine Staters now have over a 5% chance of encountering someone with a concealed carry permit as they go about their appointed rounds every day. Unless they’re in a designated gun-free zone, of course. That’s an awful lot of people wandering the streets with guns, out of control. Problem with that?
That’s great news: both the total numbers and the less than one-percent number that have had their permits revoked. I recently spoke with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer which is the county for Portland Oregon. He told me that there are @16,270 CC holders in our county and that’s out of I believe around 700,000 county residents. PDX Gun Show starting tomorrow…
If 1 million people have gone thru the process to get the permit, I wonder how many more millions own but don’t carry outside the home?
And isn’t gun ownership supposed to be in decline, according to the grabbers?
“If 1 million people have gone thru the process to get the permit…”
For the record, it’s a little over 2x that many. The milestone that Florida is about to pass isn’t the one-millionth permit, it’s the milestone of having one million permits currently active. According to a CWFL Summary Report found here, since putting the concealed permit law into place, Florida has received 2.34M applications, and issued 2.31M licenses total.
Another interesting statistic on that sheet is the revocation numbers. During that same 16 year period, Florida has revoked 7244 licenses. Of that number, 522 were revoked for “Crime Prior to Licensure,” 6523 were revoked for “Crime after Licensure,” but only 168 of those were for crimes involving a firearm. When I divided 168 by 2307881, my calculator went into scientific notation… 7.279 x 10^5. That’s 0.00007%, or one person for every 14,285 licenses issued.
I guess mikeb was right. Look at all those hidden criminals.
“7.279 x 10^5”
Of course, that was supposed to be 7.279 x 10^-5. Derp.
2.31 million in total. That just adds strength to my statement. No way to know for sure but there’s at least 3 times that many people who own and don’t apply for the permit. Maybe more. People like my father that keeps a shotgun at home. It’s the only gun he owns and has never owned a pistol.
Well, just to play devil’s advocate, your original comment was “how many more millions own but don’t carry outside the home?”
I think you’d be surprised (and a little disappointed) at how many people have a permit but don’t carry, inside or outside the home. I personally know one person that, thus far, has no intention of carrying. He got the license because it lets you skip the three-day waiting period when buying a handgun.
Speaking of, Matt, I don’t know why the **** the state NRA hasn’t tried to get that three day waiting period crap changed.
Mark my words, there will be blood running in the streets!! Run for your lives while there is still time. Oh wait, there have been nearly a million permits for a few years running now and no blood in the streets? Well, never mind then.
Obviously we are just on the cusp of blood in the streets and complete mayhem!!!
Sarcasm off… 😉
I am glad to see folks are being responsible and taking their personal protection seriously. Also out of the 0.3% I am willing to bet most of those probably didn’t occur with some guy going off in a shopping mall or some other news making headline.
I don’t know what specifically could get your license revoked, but if it includes things like a phoney restraining order from a soon to be ex wife, or maybe an arrest because you and your wife were drunk and got into a tiff, that would probably account for the bulk of it, and that doesn’t mean a gun was abused or someone died.
We could only hope all citizens CCW or not were that law abiding.
One downside to this: the state makes a good amount of money from renewal of all these permits. That means it’s unlikely that we’ll ever have constitutional carry.
Actually, the State of Florida doesn’t make effectively any money from our permits. I can’t find the actual legalese right now, but the way it was set up was that the costs of the permit were only supposed to cover the costs of administering the permit. The funds are deposited into a trust from which the permitting system is administered. That fund actually ran a surplus for the past several years, which resulted in the legislature lowering the cost of a permit, effective July 1, 2012, from $85 to $70 for a new license, and from $70 to $60 for a renewal.
Government is in the business of government jobs. Making money is not a consideration, with the exception of the State Lottery, which isn’t really a traditional government outfit. Jobs and budgets and pensions can’t be cut. Enacting constitutional carry would cause loss of government jobs, and loss of voters of a certain persuasion.
Well, if you want to be all cynical about it, I suppose you can look at it that way. My point was only that the money from our fees was not just getting dumped into the general fund, and that they weren’t charging us $70 while the actual cost to administer was only 20% of that. It’s set up to run about as efficiently and revenue neutral as a government program can be.
Cynical? Hmmm….perhaps. Realistic? Hmmmm…perhaps.
Sorry Matt, my comment was directed to Michael B.
That’s interesting, but I do still believe Joke & Dagger is onto something.
“Sunshine Staters now have over a 5% chance of encountering someone with a concealed carry permit as they go about their appointed rounds every day.”
Not sure how you came up with the 5% figure. 5% of the population have permits to carry. If a Sunshine Sater encounters more than 20 people in a day, the chance of encountering a permit holder is near 100%, and increases if they encounter more folks. That is, chance of encounter is a factor of both the number of permit holders and the number of persons encountered in a day.
Since Florida grants out of state permit as well, I wonder what the total of permits is when those are included, or are they counting Floridian and out of state permits as 1M? When I took my class I would say almost half were from out of state.
EDIT: It looks like Matt may have aleady answered this question.
Out of state permits comprise just under 12% of the total active permits (117595 out of 993162), as of November 30, 2012. (Source)
Good hope Florida become just as progun as Alabama is.
I believe Florida increased the renewal period from 5 to 7 years at the beginning of 2012.
Do u think if they are counting there is not a database out there with names and addresses? Just saying…
Florida had a head start, but Colorado is running more CHL (Concealed Handgun License) processing checks than ever. From the Denver Post…
I feel a lot safer now knowing all of this (Snoopy dance) :).
I’ve been a FL gun owner for 18 years, but I only got my carry license earlier this year (as did my wife).
I can and will say openly my wife and myself are both Florida state CWP holders.
Our favorite game on days out shopping and running errands is spot the concealed carriers. Generally it takes one to know one as so many people are so absorbed into their electronics they could have someone walk past with a shotgun slung over the shoulder and not be noticed.
Working the job that I do I see no less than 2 people a shift in the store that I can positively identify as carrying a concealed firearm either via printing or the occasional accidental reveal. Side note on that was one older gentleman, I would say in late 60’s, pulled his shirt aside to retrieve his shopping list revealing a very nice kimber compact in a IWB holster. His face went near white when he realized I had gotten a very clear view of his sidearm. I smiled and said nice Kimber, he was instantly relieved that I did not panic. We both had a laugh over it and a conversation ensued and now we talk firearms and hunting every time he comes in. I think if more people were accustomed in a “polite society” that so much less panic over firearms in general would ever ensue.
My .02
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