FL-Gov: Things appear to be getting worse for Republican state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam concerning the debacle where his department failed to properly conduct full background checks on concealed-weapons permits for more than a year, which led to at least 291 people wrongly getting approved. The Tampa Bay Times reports that investigators found that problems with concealed weapons permitting went far beyond the lone former employee, Lisa Wilde, who hadn't been able to log into the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database.
Indeed, the state Inspector General's 2017 investigation found that the mailroom employees who were responsible for checking applications against the NICS were "overwhelmed" and had little understanding of what the database was or why it was important to check. Furthermore, Wilde's supervisor didn't realize the NICS checks weren't occurring for 13 months because she didn't even know Wilde was in charge of it.
Putnam had put the blame squarely on Wilde, calling her "negligent and deceptive," and he had tried to downplay the importance of the lapse by saying the system was only used for non-criminal disqualifications like a history of mental illness or drug abuse; he claimed the state used other state and federal databases to search for criminal histories. But one of the administrators who discovered the problem told investigators that the NICS database was "very vital" for catching people with out-of-state felonies who were missing from the other databases.
Putnam said in 2014 that, "Ultimately, I'm responsible if that system breaks down," but this incident isn't the first time Putnam's department failed to properly handle gun permits. Investigators previously found in 2012 that 48 employees hadn't followed the correct procedures. Back then, one person was fired, others were sanctioned, and safeguards were supposedly put in place, but that didn't prevent the subsequent incident with Wilde and the NICS.
Putnam has been an avid supporter of loosening gun-safety restrictions, and he has boasted about how easier he has made it to acquire a concealed-weapons permit. However, Putnam's department appears to have simply been inadequately prepared for the surge in applications, potentially putting public safety at risk.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ron DeSantis has released an internal poll from 1892 Polling that gives him a wide 47-28 lead over Putnam in the Republican primary. That's a big improvement for DeSantis from their April survey, where he led by 30-26, and these latest results are similar to a recent Remington Research poll on behalf of the pro-Desantis Tenth Amendment Project, which had him ahead by 43-26. However, polling from independent outfits has painted a very different picture of the race, and a Marist survey last month found Putnam up by 38-21.