Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services-elect, , doesn鈥檛 actually take office until January, but says she鈥檚 already begun talks with department employees about making changes in the state鈥檚 .
Nikki Fried said that under her leadership, the will conduct a complete audit of Florida鈥檚 process for vetting concealed weapons permit applicants. Fried said she wants to see that responsibility transferred from the Dept. of Agriculture to the .
鈥淟aw enforcement is already so instrumental in the process and that way you get politics out of this,鈥� said Fried.
鈥淲e saw after the primary that 300 e-mails were released between the Department of Agriculture and the NRA lobbyist (Marion Hammer) where had direct influence over policies that were coming out of the Department of Agriculture.鈥�
Those e-mails were obtained and published by the .
Outgoing state Agriculture Commissioner came under fire earlier this year when an revealed that between February 2016 and March 2017, a staffer failed to run firearm applicants through the because she couldn鈥檛 log into the system. As a result, 291 issued firearm permits were revoked.
鈥淲e need to do an audit of the Department to figure out exactly what happened,鈥� said Fried. 鈥淲hy somebody was able to not login for 13 months and whether that could ever happen again. We need to make sure those holes are plugged.鈥�
Fried notes that she is among the more than 1.9 million concealed carry permit holders in Florida.
鈥淚鈥檝e had that for about five years. I have my own gun,鈥� said Fried.
鈥淚鈥檓 not looking to prolong the process. I鈥檓 looking to make sure that its done in an efficient and effective manner and that those who are not supposed to get their concealed weapons permits don鈥檛, but those that have every right to and have no issues on background get it in a timely manner.鈥�
Fried鈥檚 efforts to revamp the program are also likely play out in next year鈥檚 state legislative session. In late November, state , D-Plantation, and , D-Orlando, filed a bill ( to transfer the concealed weapons licensing program from the Dept. of Agriculture to the FDLE.
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