More than 3,000 Kansans applied for concealed carry permits during the month of April, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today.
Schmidt said his office received 3,462 applications for concealed carry permits during April. While this number is down slightly from the record month in March, it is still the third-highest month since the concealed carry licensing program began in 2007.
It represents a 140 percent increase from the 1,442 permit applications that were received in April 2012.
Schmidt said his office is working diligently to process the applications in a timely manner while ensuring complete and accurate review of each application as required by law. Currently, applications are being processed in 89 days or less except for those that are pending the receipt of additional information.
Since last fall, additional staff have been hired or temporarily reassigned to assist in processing the sharp increase in applications, more than doubling the number of people assigned to the processing of concealed carry permit applications compared with this time last year.
Investigators who conduct applicants’ backgrounds checks are working overtime. The Legislature is still considering the attorney general’s request for authority to hire up to three additional licensing personnel in order to reduce processing time.
In the first four months of 2013, Schmidt’s office received 14,274 new concealed carry applications. There are currently 55,988 active concealed carry licensees in Kansas.
