More Ohio CCW permits issued by 2013's Third Quarter than for all of last year

Ohio's concealed carry license program continues to set records with an ever-swelling number of qualifying people being issued the necessary documents.

Mike DeWine – the state's attorney general who administers the program and tracks the number of people receiving the permit – says that for the calendar year's Third Quarter, 18,705 new licenses were issued along with 13,913 renewals.

For comparison, during 2012's Third Quarter, Ohio's 88 county sheriffs issued 13,949 new licenses and 3,447 renewals, DeWine says.

“In the first nine months of this year, 82,186 new licenses were issued,” DeWine said. “That's more than in any single calendar year since concealed carry permits began being issued in 2004.”

Likewise, says DeWine, this year's first nine months of permit issuance has all ready eclipsed the 2012 total number of permits granted by the state's county sheriffs.

Last year the state saw 64,650 new licenses issued, itself a record at the time, DeWine said.

As to which counties led the pack, Franklin County's sheriff Zach Scott's department came out on top with 1,382 new permits being issued in this year's Third Quarter along with another 759 renewals.

Montgomery County fared well too. Here the county sheriff Phil Plummer's office issued 1,237 new permits and 985 renewals during this year's Third Quarter.

Lake County Sheriff Dan Dunlap's crew issued 920 new permits and 361 renewals for third place.

Every one of Ohio's 88 county sheriffs issued new permits during the Third Quarter. Among the counties with the fewest issuance of new permits during the Third Quarter were Noble (25), Paulding (26), Monroe (31), Adams (37), and Morgan (42).

Ohio's Attorney General's Office compiles an annual report as required by law regarding the number of concealed carry licenses issued each year.

Each county sheriff must report CCW handgun license statistics quarterly to the Ohio Peace Office Training Commission within the state's AG office.

Once compiled and verified all statistics are published on the Ohio Attorney General's website: www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/ConcealedCarry.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net