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Florida Mail In Gun Permits Growing in Philadelphia

by: Rebel - Havertown, PA
started: 10/02/11 8:11 pm | updated: 10/02/11 8:11 pm

Mail order gun permits from Florida, where the rules are less stringent, are growing in popularity in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania and Florida have a reciprocal agreement to respect each other's gun licenses, and local police are compelled to honor these permits, despite any opposition they may have due to a personâ€™s character or background info.

Minor brushes with the law or character issues are not considerations for granting or rejecting a permit in Florida. The key is that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said such broad reciprocity "undermines the traditional authority of state and local governments to protect their citizens."

Legislation pending in Congress - and endorsed by a majority of House members - would extend the reciprocity nationwide.

The city argues that it needs latitude in determining who is a threat, because of long-standing problems in the court system. An Inquirer report last year noted that while prosecutors in other big cities win felony convictions in half of violent-crime cases, in Philadelphia, prosecutors had been winning only 20 percent.

One oft-cited reason is witnesses' changing their stories or failing to appear in court, leading to acquittals for lack of evidence or reasonable doubt.

Increasingly, Philadelphia police are discovering suspects arrested here have Florida concealed-weapons permits.

That's because most of the gun permits are going to the city's higher-crime areas, with concentrations in Olney and West Philadelphia.
Seventy Florida permit-holders list addresses in West Philadelphia's zip code 19143, which includes the Cobbs Creek and Kingsessing neighborhoods. In 2005, there were three Florida permits in that zip code.

No other area of the state has that concentration of Florida permits, according to an Inquirer analysis of Florida permit data. Among America's 10 largest cities, only New York has more, with 1,400, and its population is five times larger. Philadelphia has more Florida permits per capita than any other big city.

As Florida permits have grown in popularity here - even former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, now imprisoned on corruption charges, had one - a cottage industry has sprung up to ease the application and approval process.

A local psychologist offers a firearms-training program tailored to the Florida law, and a local lawyer has been suing police who detain Florida permit-holders and seize their guns.

Bruce Eimer, a psychologist and gun instructor who has trained dozens of Philadelphians seeking Florida permits, said Florida's reciprocal agreement with Pennsylvania and 31 other states was a key reason people want that state's license. He stressed that people with permits typically are law-abiding citizens.

"The people who don't have permits, those are the people who commit crimes," said Eimer, who also attests to the mental fitness of applicants for state security-guard licenses.

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