A Florida commissioner has promised ‘extra eyeballs’ within his office after it emerged that the state went more than a year without conducting national background checks on thousands of applications to carry concealed weapons.
An investigation by the inspector general of the state’s Agriculture Department, which issues such permits, found that it had stopped using an FBI crime database from February 2016 to March 2017 because an employee had forgotten a password needed to log into the system.
The department employee failed to make follow-up inquiries into 365 applicants who were flagged for noncriminal reasons during three background checks over the year-long period.
The lapse, revealed in an internal report that was not widely known about until Friday, occurred during a time period when there was a significant surge in the number of people seeking permission to legally carry a concealed weapon.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has promised ‘extra eyeballs’ within his office after it emerged that the state went more than a year without conducting national background checks on thousands of applications to carry concealed weapons
Florida does not allow the open carry of weapons, but more than 1.9 million have permits to carry guns and weapons in public if they are concealed.
The state ultimately revoked 291 permits and fired an employee blamed for the lapse.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam held a news conference on Saturday in Sun City Center, Florida, to defend himself against critics who say he should resign because of the lapse in checks.
Putnam is a Republican candidate for governor who has touted his efforts to make it easier for people to obtain concealed-weapons permits.
The commissioner says ‘more seamless’ communication between his agency and law enforcement, and ‘extra eyeballs,’ are in place to make sure the incident never happens again.
The employee failed to make follow-up inquiries into 365 applicants who were flagged for noncriminal reasons during three background checks over the year-long period
Putnam said the state did conduct its own criminal background checks on those applying for permits during that time period.
He laid the blame solely on the employee who forgot the password had signaled the problem to another official but then failed to pursue the matter.
‘The former employee was both deceitful and negligent, and we immediately launched an investigation and implemented safeguards to ensure this never happens again,’ Putnam said in a statement on Friday.
McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, said the governor’s office was never provided a copy of the inspector general’s report.
Democrats and gun control advocates quickly criticized Putnam over the incident and said he should resign. Putnam has raised the ire of gun control advocates for his proclamation last year that he was a “proud NRA sellout” who supports the National Rifle Association.
He also said that he would not have signed the new gun and school safety law enacted by the Florida Legislature in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.