Which Florida County Has Most Gun Permits?
Click on the counties map to see the numbers. Here's a look at how Sarasota County ranks compared with other Florida counties for concealed weapons permits.
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When it comes to gun permits, Sarasota County does not rank high, nor does its neighbor, Manatee County.
- The No. 1 Florida county for the sheer number of people licensed to carry concealed weapons is Miami-Dade County, which has a national reputation for violent crime, which is also caused by unregistered guns. Because of its large population, the number is only 3.3 percent of the overall county population.
- The No. 1 county, with more than 10 percent of the population licensed to carry guns, is rural Dixie County, located in the Panhandle, followed by Monroe County, located in the Florida Keys, at 7.3 percent.
- Tampa Bay counties with high rankings for concealed gun permits are Hillsborough, at No. 4, for the sheer number, with 45,447 residents licensed to carry them.
- Pinellas County is at No. 7, by sheer number of licensees, with 36,498.
- Both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties fall toward the bottom of counties with the proportion of residents to county population who hold state permits to carry concealed weapons. Hillsborough ranks 53, with 3.7 percent of its population, and Pinellas is at 45, with 3.9 percent of its population licensed to carry concealed weapons.
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Sarasota gun ownership numbers
Sarasota County has 17,802 residents licensed to carry concealed weapons, placing it 14th out of 67 counties , according to the most recent state records, the most recent data available.
Sarasota ranks 37th among Florida counties, at 4.6 percent, by the proportion of its population licensed to carry concealed weapons. The licensing is done through the Florida Division of Licensing, which is part of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Gun laws in Florida are being debated in the Legislature in the aftermath of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager in Sanford. Gun control advocates are arguing to overturn the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. Gov. Rick Scott also has formed a committee to host a series of town meetings across Florida about the state law.
For comparison, just more than 4 percent of Manatee county population has this special permit.
Neighboring Manatee County has 13,330 residents licensed to carry concelaed weapons, according to the most recent data. Manatee also ranks 17 out of 67 counties by the sheer number of residents licensed.
Manatee County's ranking falls to 43rd, when it is calculated by the percentage of population licensed to carry concealed permits.
This map and article corrects incorrect data supplied for Sarasota County.
Cathy
8:34 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Are there stats to evaluate what the % of licensed gun permits is per county and the corresponding % of gun related crimes?
Steve
9:06 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
It's obvious that Patch has declared a War on Guns --- why? It's our Constitutional Right and you're not going to stop Citizens from exercising that Right.
Charles Schelle
10:25 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Steve, the story is simply informational providing statistics on gun registration. It's up to the reader to interpret what these stats mean to them.
Barb Kava
9:49 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Stand your Ground should be repealed. We should be working on ways to supprt law enforcement efforts to make communities safer.
christine pepe
7:31 am on Monday, June 25, 2012
Nothing wrong with the law.There is something wrong when people who are not in eminent danger are the cause of it such as Zimmerman.He was told not to pursue, to wait for police.He appointed himself Matt dillion and set into motion an effect that should not have been,
Willyone
11:32 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Love the stand your ground law, keep it on the books........
TJW
11:49 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Not sure where the stats came from, but at least some are wrong. Manatee County, smaller than Sarasota County, has 13,104 licenses while Sarasota has only 8,348, yet Sarasota is 37th and Manatee is 43rd. Charles? Makes me question the accuracy of any and all other stats quoted. Article is also inconsistent: Sarasota is cited as having 4.3%, but no percentage is given for Manatee. I much prefer to compare apples to apples, but can't do it with this information. Article is interesting, but flawed: too bad.
Charles Schelle
2:44 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thanks TJW -- it appears that in the table for the map, Santa Rosa County's numbers accidentally went into Sarasota County's slot causing for some confusion. The numbers are not adjusted for a per capita comparison.
Asher King
6:45 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
The stats bounce back and forth between % and # on permit holders so your comparing apples and oranges. Only a liberal a.k.a. idiot would fall for that trick. Miami had the most permits but a lower percentage than Sarasota. If they got their percentage up to 100% of law abiding citizens then the crime rate would drop to near zero. Liberals don't like guns because in complicates their plans for world enslavement. Also I'm a huge fan of stand your ground. We don't have a problem with the law we had a problem with law enforcement making a poor decision not to at least arrest Zimmerman. They should have arrested him that night and if he was justified he would've had his day in court. Every citizens should have the right to stand their ground. I just hope our conservative buddies in Tallahassee don't cave under the pressure to repeal the law.
Amy Cox
5:59 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Believe me,if anyone thinks Zimmerman is going to get a fair trial, with the current DOJ, they probably believe in the Easter Bunny as well.
Charles Schelle
10:07 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Just to be clear the data comes straight from Florida Division of Licensing which publishes those numbers in chart form. That state department is in charge of gun permits.
frank
10:08 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
So sad,..
If Linda Hershey was Concealed Carry Licenced,
she would have been State trained that ,
there is no such thing as an
"unarmed teenager"
unless you have xRay vision,..
Do Responding Police officers have xRay vision,
or will they shoot you if you move wrong?
Did Zimmerman have xRay vision in the dark,
in the rain,
under that 6'3" Hooded Menacing attacker?
Do you want your face torn off and Eaten ,
Your eyes gouged out?
If Trevon Marten had attacked the responding Police Officer the same way
he would have shot him much more than once ,..
Charles Schelle
12:48 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
Frank, I don't think that's fair to Linda. The story is more about the interactive graphic to explore to just provide information. It's not to advocate for or against gun rights. Many of our families include hunters. For more information on license, and to apply, visit http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us. We've also uploaded two additional charts.
TJW
10:30 pm on Sunday, June 24, 2012
Charles, you say Frank is not being fair to Linda, but she is the one who inserted the irrelevant paragraph about gun control being debated and "Stand your ground", which is not gun permit related at all. She would be better served, in my opinion, to spend her time reading her own submission to correct (eliminate) the inconsistencies that I and others noted in the article.
christine pepe
7:39 am on Monday, June 25, 2012
A trained policeman would have asked him if he lived there.He would have asked his address.Zimmerman was told by 911 not to persue. He had no law enforcement training.This is far different from a case in oklahoma,where 2 men tried to get into her home. one got in the house and she shot him dead,That is what stand your ground is and that is clear and present danger.
susan a. marks
3:03 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
We have the right to have guns to protect what's ours. Should the liberals win in taking away our rights, we would have only the wrong people with the weapons that will be used as they are now, to commit crimes against good citizens. The communists don's want thier populations to have weapons, so they can take over their helpless citizens. I would watch Obams and his band of thieves carefully. This Fast and Furious mess was designed to make guns look bad, to give the loonie left an arguement to take them away from all of us. Keep Stand Your Ground and Legally Permited guns! Repeal the Dems.
susan a. marks
3:05 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
The communists don't want..... correction of my typo.