Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says pistol permits in New York are surging due to fear of coming government action against guns.
“I think there’s a great fear that the country is leaning towards some sort of ban, [and] people want to beat the government to the punch,” Apple said. “We’re getting rocked with applications. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who want their pistol permits.”
According to the Times Union, the number of applications “have doubled year-to-year in Albany [County].”
The surge is being seen in other counties, too.
Columbia County Sheriff David Bartlett pointed out that permit applications in his county were up “186 percent” during the first six months of 2016. Rensselaer County Sheriff Patrick Russo said they processed “about 300 pistol permit applications in 2014, about 600 in 2015, and is on track to handle more than 1,000 applications this year.”
Sheriff Apple noted the surge in pistol permits has revealed a change in the concealed carry demographic.
“I hate to stereotype like that, but we would (previously) get mostly just younger-than-middle-aged men,” he said. “Now, because of so many concerns, I’m getting more younger people, especially younger females.”
The example of women arming up in Albany County is a microcosm of what has been playing out on the national stage since for the past several years. On July 28, Breitbart News reported Crime Prevention Research Center numbers showing that twice as many women as men were getting concealed carry permits during President Obama’s second term. CPRC numbers also “suggested that permit-holding is increasing about 75 percent more quickly among minorities than among whites.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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