Requests for concealed handgun permits have been flooding into the El Paso County Sheriff’s office since Friday. KRCC’s Liz Ruskin reports the office is pleading for patience.
The increase in calls to the county’s concealed handgun program began shortly after Friday’s mass shooting in Connecticut. Despite fielding calls all day, the office was left with 106 unanswered messages Tuesday. Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer says both the incident and the subsequent calls for stricter gun control appear to be motivating residents to seek permits to carry concealed weapons.
"When you have both of those things going on at the same time, I think that why we see a significant spike at this point in time, since both of those events are running kind of parallel to one another."
Meanwhile, gun sales in Colorado appear to be surging. The state is reporting a record number of requests for background checks on potential gun buyers. By mid-day Tuesday the backlog was more than 2,000 despite extra staffing.
