Gun permit applications increase
BUTLER — The number of gun permit applications at the sheriff's office since the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas has increased, but mainly because of two previous tragedies.
Retiree Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nev., shot and killed 58 people and wounded 489 at a Las Vegas country music concert from his perch on the 38th story of a nearby hotel.
After the tragedy, Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe said his office in the courthouse saw an increase in applications for concealed-carry gun permits, but he said the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting and the 2015 “Paris massacre” might have been the real reasons for the local increase.
Slupe explained his office saw a large increase in concealed-carry permit applications after those attacks, which occurred in December and November, respectively.
Those permits are about to expire and many people are coming to the sheriff's office to renew them, Slupe said.
“We just sent out hundreds of renewal letters,” Slupe said. “The law requires that they be sent at least 60 days before the expiration of the license.”
He said applicants are not required to divulge their reasons for applying for the permit, and few volunteer that information.
Slupe recalls no applicants saying they were applying for a concealed-carry permit because of the recent Las Vegas shooting.
Slupe said Friday that his office had processed 187 applications last week for concealed-carry gun permits, compared to 96 during the same period in 2016.
He said the ratio was about one new permit application to every five renewals.
Many times, Slupe said, there is an increase in applications when legislators talk about restricting gun rights.
“That type of rhetoric brings people in Butler County out,” Slupe said. “They feel it's their Second Amendment right to buy, maintain, keep and shoot firearms.”
He said he feels the shooter and not the gun should be blamed in senseless tragedies such as the one last weekend in Las Vegas.
“Personally and professionally, it upsets me when people want to blame the gun,” Slupe said.
Regarding carrying firearms, Slupe said it is legal in Pennsylvania to carry a gun out in the open.
The concealed-carry permit allows the license holder to conceal the firearm on their person or in a vehicle, Slupe said.
Some exceptions to the license include carrying a weapon into federal buildings such as the post office or Social Security office, where civilians are prohibited from carrying a gun.
