Florida Declares 291 Weapons Permits Null Due to Failed Background Checks

Florida has recently declared 291 approved weapon permits null after it was discovered that a state employee failed to make an efficient review of candidates’ criminal backgrounds. According to a report from state officials, the checkups were not done at all; the employee wasn’t able to log into the system.

According to Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, if the background check procedure had been done properly, many applications would’ve been declined. Apparently, the employee disregarded the necessity of checking the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to approve an application.  Putnam has stated that his department is currently working to avoid this from happening again.

He mentioned at a press conference that the three mandatory checkups for getting a weapon permit are “state and federal fingerprint-based searches of criminal records, and a name-based search through the NICS to search for non-criminal records.” The information found at any of the three investigations could compromise the entire application. In this case, the problem occurred when the employee did not label NICS-flagged applications as ineligible in the state system. The applications were filed during a thirteen month period between February of 2016 and March of last year.

The employee has reportedly been fired from the department. The Tampa Bay Times reports that she was under pressure to check several applications in short amounts of time. This was due to the fact that Putnam made it a priority to “speed up the issuing of concealed weapons permits” since he was elected.  He tweeted a response to claims that he is too invested in issuing the permits, which read: “The liberal media recently called me a sellout to the NRA. I’m a proud #NRASellout!”

The error was noticed when comparing the number of accepted applications between the thirteen months and the following July, with the latter having a significantly smaller amount.

Putnam is currently running for Governor of Florida, and his opponent Congressman Ron DeSantis used these recent events to hurt his reputation. DeSantis told reporters: “Adam has spent years campaigning for governor, basically, in this position and the report was very concerning because it seemed like he wasn’t minding the store when we needed him to be there.”

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stated that “Upon discovery of this former employee’s negligence in March of 2017, the department immediately launched an audit of the 365 applications she failed to review,” and that “When the department completed the full background checks with information from the NICS system on the 365 applications she failed to review, 291 licenses were ultimately revoked.”

Additionally, the department focused on confirming for Florida citizens that they have since reviewed and toughened their application process. Putnam has also remarked that it is his interest to maintain a good reputation for his department and the weapon license application process in Florida, which is why he rushed to act on the issue.

Featured Image via: Flickr/Sean Dobbins