Department failed its responsibility.
There’s falling through the bureaucratic cracks, and then there’s Florida’s Department of Agriculture failing to conduct background checks for concealed-weapons permits for more than a year.
The blame rests with the low-level employee who failed to do her job. But the responsibility ultimately lies with Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who is running for governor.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, an inspector general’s investigation found that beginning in February 2016 the sole employee conducting the background checks stopped accessing the FBI crime database because was unable to log into the computer system. She reported the problem, once. It went unresolved until discovered by another worker in March 2017.
The Times reports that 13 months covered more than 350,000 applications for concealed-carry permits that weren’t properly screened as the law requires.
(READ: Florida stopped doing gun permit checks for more than a year)
Putnam says that when the lapse came to light, his office immediately fixed it, reviewed 365 questionable cases and revoked 291 permits; the employee was fired. That’s all well and good — after the fact. But how did that situation manifest itself in the first place, and how could it have lingered for so long?
Start at the beginning: The fired employee told the Times she had been working in the mailroom when she was given oversight of the database in 2013.
“I didn’t understand why I was put in charge of it,” she said.
Furthermore, she explained that the licensing department was overwhelmed with the number of applications and she was under pressure from supervisors to quickly approve applications.
Under Putnam, who was elected commissioner in 2010, the Agriculture Department has made it a priority to speed up the issuing of concealed-weapons permits, which now number more than 1.8 million in Florida. Prioritizing speed ahead of oversight, and putting mailroom employees in charge of the process, indicate Putnam didn’t take his responsibility to enforce existing gun laws and protect public safety seriously enough. He won’t be able to dodge it so easily on the campaign trail.