Conceal carry permits nearly doubled so far in 2013

[Garrison Hilliard]

The number of concealed carry licenses issued in Ohio have spiked in
the first three months of 2013, nearly doubling the amount issued
during the same period last year.

State data released Wednesday shows 31,407 licenses were issued in the
first quarter, up 86.7 percent from the 16,823 issued in the first
quarter of 2012. As a result, the state is on pace to double the
64,650 licenses issued last year.

The increase comes as federal background check data shows a sharp
increase in pre-sale checks nationally and in Ohio.

“It is a dramatic increase in permits, we are close to half of what we
had all of last year with only one quarter gone this year, a stunning
increase,” said Mike DeWine, Ohio’s attorney general, in a telephone
interview.

DeWine wouldn’t speculate on a reason for the tremendous increase.

But one local applicant said the Sandy Hook school shootings, and the
resulting calls for tighter restrictions on guns, was what pushed him
to apply.

“If something goes down, I want to be prepared,” said Jerrid Lee, a
21-year-old Finneytown residents who got his license in March.

Locally, Hamilton County saw a large increase in license issued. In
the first quarter of 2013, the county issued 1,302 licenses, compared
to 715 during the same period in 2012.

“We have started double booking appointments because of the increase
in applicants,” said Jim Knapp, a sheriff's office spokesman.

The department is considering creating satellite offices in certain
parts of the county, so concealed carry do not have to come downtown
and deal with having to find parking.

Knepp said one of the locations being considered for a satellite
office is in Anderson Township.

Clermont County is one of the counties that experienced the largest
increases in licenses issued, with 1603 handed out in the first
quarter of 2013, compared to 682 during the same period last year.

Applicants do not have to obtain a permit in their home county, but
may apply in an adjacent county.

As a result, Clermont receives a large number of applicants from
Hamilton, Warren and Brown counties, apparently because (unlike other
counties) it accepts walk-ins and does not have a waiting list. More
than half of the Clermont applicants are a resident of another county,
said Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg.

Warren County experienced a slight decrease in applicants, with 187
license issued first quarter of 2013 and 267 issued during the same
span last year. Butler County posted an 11 percent increase.

“Demand for a license is through the roof,” said Ken Hanson,
legislative director of the Buckeye Firearms Association.

In the first few months of 2013, the association has already taught
concealed carry classes to more people than they taught in all of
2012.

“People were thinking after the (presidential) election that if they
didn’t get (a gun) now, the right might be taken away,” Hanson said.
“Also in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, leaders started debating banning
certain guns.”

Ohio and the rest of the nation have experienced a significant
increase in guns sales in 2013, based on federal background check
data.

The FBI says that through the first three months of 2013, 239,789
firearm background checks were made in Ohio – up 52.1 percent from the
157,642 in the first three months of 2012.

Firearm background checks nationwide in the first quarter of 2013 were
up 300 percent from the first quarter of 2008, according to data from
the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Not all firearms sales require background checks.

NICS data shows that six of the 10 highest weeks for firearm
background checks since 1998 occurred in the first quarter of 2013.
The highest single week for background checks occurred the week after
the Sandy Hook shootings, when more than 950,000 background checks in
the U.S. were conducted

Ohio concealed carry permits are in effect for five years before they
must be renewed. At the end of 2012, there were about 320,000 in force
across the state, an Enquirer analysis of permit data from the
attorney general’s office shows.

There were nearly 15,000 issued in Clermont County in effect at the
end of 2012, nearly 12,000 in Hamilton County, about 9,000 in Butler
County and about 7,000 in Warren County.

DeWine said renewals in the first quarter of 2013 ran 600 percent
higher than last year at this time.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130501/NEWS/305010157

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130501/NEWS/305010157

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