The House Business and Professional Regulation Subcommittee passed two bills Tuesday that would allow applications for concealed weapons to be accepted by county tax collectors. Rep. James Grant (R-Tampa) sponsors one of the bills.
“All were doing is increasing the access to locations to have these applications processed,” Grant said.
Even though Grant’s bill was passed, Rep. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg) wondered why money wasn't also being spent on gun education.
“When you realize that folks are improperly using these weapons you have to be prudent and you have to be careful when opening up these floodgates of access,” Rouson said.
The bill doesn’t add any extra fee for turning applications in to tax collectors, and those offices are only a middleman – applications would still have to be passed on to the state for processing.