Usually we think it's a time for celebration when our state becomes the first to reach an important milestone, but we've got a feeling this record won't quite make everyone so happy.
As of Wednesday morning, December 19, the state of Florida became the first state in the U.S. to issue one million concealed weapons permit. The state has issued 1,000,542 concealed weapons permits, according to the Miami Herald.
Florida currently issues about 10,000 to 15,000 new concealed weapons permits per month, recently speeding up the typical application process from 12 weeks down to about 35 days.
According to state Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam, about four in every five of those applying for concealed weapons permits are men.
In the wake of two of the countries worst mass shootings in the past six months - July's theater shooting in Aurora, CO. and last week's tragedy in Newtown, CT. - the timing couldn't be worse for this new milestone in Florida. Regardless, the gun control debate is a very important one for the country at this time in light of all this recent news.
