Naples Daily News: Licenses to build guns skyrockets in Florida
The massive surge of gun manufacturing in Florida has strained the federal agency charged with issuing licenses for gun makers. Via the Naples Daily News:
Florida has more gun manufacturers than any other state except Texas, after a surge of nearly 350 percent in licenses for gun makers fueled by the nation’s growing demand for firearms.
The increase in gun manufacturing licenses since 2009 has strained the resources of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — the federal law enforcement agency that monitors the nation’s gun sales and distribution. As the number of licenses to make firearms grew nationally by nearly 250 percent from 3,040 licenses in 2009 to 10,503 last year, the number of special agents watching manufacturers has increased only 30 percent, from 623 in 2009 to 811 in 2015.
The agency is outmatched, and that’s a public danger when police departments across the country rely more frequently on the expertise of the ATF to respond to gun violence, two former ATF special agents said.
Read more here.
