West Scranton resident David Madeira planned all along to replace his expired concealed weapons permit.
But as he waited for his new permit at the Lackawanna County Courthouse, the radio talk show host acknowledged it was the looming prospect of more stringent gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that brought him to the sheriff’s office this week.
“I think that maybe made me do it today as opposed to waiting,” said Mr. Madeira, whose wife, Melanie, also picked up a permit. “It’s a consideration.”
Many other gun owners apparently feel the same.
Over the past few weeks, the sheriff’s office has been inundated with requests for concealed-carry permits, with applicants often queuing up at the courthouse a dozen or more at a time, Sheriff John Szymanski said.
“It’s crazy,” the sheriff said. “You know what it’s like? It’s like when a storm is approaching and people are running out to the store to get their milk and bread.”
During the month of December, Mr. Szymanski’s office issued 413 concealed weapons permits. That compares to 265 issued during December 2011.
It was a similar situation in Wyoming County, where 110 permits were issued last month, up from 82 in December 2011.
In Pike County, Sheriff Lance Benedict said his office issued 173 permits in December, only three more than it handed out in December 2011.
However, about 100 of those were issued in the last week of the month, which “is something that is just unheard of here,” Mr. Benedict said.
“We are just getting hammered,” he said.
Mr. Szymanski said he believed a number of factors are at play.
The Dec. 14 shooting rampage in Connecticut that killed 20 first-graders and six adults, and the resulting calls for banning certain types of weapons and other legislation aimed at curbing gun violence, are part of it, he said.
So, too, was the uncertainty surrounding the “fiscal cliff” — people feared their taxes were going up and were getting panicky, he said.
But it is also a seasonal thing.
“The holidays are normally busy,” Mr. Szymanski said. “People give guns as gifts and buy guns around the holidays for themselves as gifts, so naturally they get their permits.”
The Madeiras had to wait about an hour to receive their permits. Normally, it is a 15-minute process, Mr. Szymanski said.
However, he said, the state police-operated Pennsylvania Instant Check System, which gives his office instant access to background records on an applicant, has been “just so bogged down” that a wait of one or two hours is not unusual.
Trooper Adam Reed, a state police spokesman in Harrisburg, was unaware of any specific issues with PICS but said the system handled more than 89,000 calls, including nearly 17,000 concealed-weapons permit background checks, between Dec. 1 and Dec. 20.
“With unprecedented numbers like these, some slowing in the system is inevitable,” Trooper Reed said in an email.
Unlike her husband, Mrs. Madeira is first-time permit holder — “a gun permit virgin,” she joked.
The mother of six said she thinks it makes sense for every woman to know how to use a firearm.
“It’s just nice to know that you can protect yourself,” she said.
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com