Thread by @scontorno

A new review of Florida's concealed weapons program has found more problems and more licenses issued erroneously . Here are some the findings:

1. Adam Putnam gave inaccurate information to the public about the scope of the problem & never corrected it.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

Putnam's agency discovered a massive breach in background checks while state auditors were reviewing his concealed weapons program and NEVER TOLD THE AUDITORS about the problem.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

The first time state auditors learned about the background check problems in concealed weapons was in June of this year, i.e. when the @TB_Times first reported on the investigation. This was more than a year after they started auditing the agency.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

Because Putnam had grown the concealed weapons program so quickly, they needed to hire contractors to help with the workload. These contractors approved nearly one in every four of the 733,893 permits issued by the state over three years.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

These contractor continued to work for the department for weeks even after they were flagged for multiple errors, like failing to review criminal histories of applicants, and they processed more than 10,000 applications before they were let go.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

The audit also found the department sometimes waited weeks to review background checks of its own employees. One senior clerk worked for the department for 175 days before her supervisors discovered a felony extortion charge on her record.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

The department's response disclosed for the first time that agency once allowed a 5 percent error rate for employees who process concealed carry permits. Now, employees must meet a "100 percent achievement rate."

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

Read the full story here:

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

And the full audit here:

flauditor.gov/pages/pdf_file…