Applications for area concealed-carry permits rise

BENTON, Mo. ­— Local sheriffs are among those in the state who are seeing a spike in applications for permits to carry concealed weapons.

“Last year and this year, it really went up,” Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said about concealed-carry weapon permit applications in his county. “In ’14, we had 305 new CCWs, and we had 206 renewals. In 2015 we had 422 new ones and we had 405 renewals. It doesn’t seem to be slowing down any, and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon.

“Since Jan. 1 of this year, we’ve had 47 new ones and 48 renewals — and we have another 40 pending. We are doing the background check, running the history to make sure everything is OK.”

Mississippi County Sheriff Keith Moore said his department also has seen an increase in concealed-carry applications — almost every time the president begins talking about increasing gun restrictions.

“Everybody panics and goes and buys more guns,” Moore said. “Then more people want to get concealed-carry and come to us. I’m all for the right to carry, so more power to the people. Marty Williams is one of my deputies and offers concealed-carry classes.”

There is a waiting list for the next concealed-carry course Williams offers monthly at Re-Armm in Sikeston, Missouri.

Dana Wigfall, who handles concealed-carry applications at the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Department, said it also saw an increase in such applications and renewals last year over 2014.

“Maybe 300 or 400 more than in 2014,” Wigfall said. “It seemed like it slowed down for a little bit, and now it has picked back up again — we’ve done five or six today already.”

Renewing a concealed-carry permit now takes a single stop: the sheriff’s office.

Before it was changed a few years ago, sheriffs’ offices would fingerprint the applicant and conduct checks, then issued an OK, but the license bureau printed the permit by adding the concealed-carry endorsement to a driver’s license or by issuing a separate Missouri ID if requested.

“We are doing it in our office now,” Walter said. “It is no longer on your license — it is always a separate ID. We print them out a new card.”

Permits now last longer, which will reduce the concealed carry-traffic somewhat at sheriffs’ offices.

“In the past, before sheriffs started printing them, they were for three years,” Walter recalled. “Now they last for five.”

Walter said the Live Scan fingerprint scanners his office is equipped with makes it possible to keep up with the increased demand and has benefited new concealed-carry applicants as well.

“The turnaround now is usually about 48 hours or less where before you were looking at about two weeks,” he said.

On Tuesday, “we had 19 people that went through it for CCW,” Walter said. “They had printed four CCWs before 9 a.m. Some people said they will never carry, but want the option.”

“Every time they have any shootings, we have a burst of them come in here,” Moore said.