In those two days alone, the court received 156 applications for concealed-carry permits, while those days of the week usually see no more than 40 requests each, Wolk said.
On a related note, at least one county resident questioned why the county rents space at the Civic Center and Jim R. Miller Park for gun shows — including one set for this weekend.
Show promoters pay a base fee for use of the facility and equipment, and afterward pay 10 percent of their gross admissions.
The county has taken in more than $73,000 this year from 12 gun shows, county officials said. In 2011, it took in just under $70,000. Cobb actually has had to regulate the frequency of gun shows due to promoter demand, said Terrence Ramsey, manager of the county’s recreation services division.
“The county has been having gun shows for a long time,” Ramsey said. “We had so many requests for gun shows that we had to put time frames in.”
The income from all rentals of county facilities goes into the general fund, he said.
Tammy Clabby, a retired television journalist who lives in Marietta, said she called county and state leaders to find out why gun shows are allowed at county-owned properties and what would prevent such a show from being held in a school.
She endorsed President Obama’s comments Wednesday that the issue of assault weapons and high-count magazines must be addressed.
“I don’t want to take everybody’s guns away,” Clabby said. “I understand the desire to have weapons. But you have to have common sense here. It is not common sense to allow these assault weapons out there.”
Raymond Johns, a show organizer with Eastman Gun Shows Inc., which will host a show Saturday and Sunday at Jim R. Miller Park and another one Jan. 5 to 6 at the Cobb Civic Center, said sales of firearms nationwide have increased since Friday’s mass shootings in Connecticut.
“Anytime there’s talk of banning certain kinds of weapons, sales go up because people believe they won’t be able to get them anymore,” Johns said.
Eastman, he said, tries to have only federally licensed gun sellers at its shows, because those sellers are required to do background checks on all buyers. The only loophole that allows buyers to bypass a background check is through a person-to-person sale, Johns said.
Johns said he believes guns “have a place in the world.”
“When someone uses them for the wrong reason, I don’t think it’s right to blame it all on the guns. Some guns, maybe we don’t need. But I don’t think it’s right for someone to tell me I can’t have this, if it’s legal. I can’t tell a smoker or an alcoholic that they can’t have those products, because they’re legal,” Johns said.
As for the concealed-carry permits, Probate Judge Wolk said 71 applications came in on Monday — the first business day after Friday’s devastating school shooting in Connecticut — and 85 were submitted on Tuesday. A “normal” Monday or Tuesday usually sees 30 to 40 permits to carry a concealed firearm, she said.
Wolk said there is a traditional bump in applications around Christmastime, but not to this extent.
Since Jan. 1, her office has processed 7,379 applications. In 2011, there were 5,841 applications in Cobb. The high water mark of recent years came in 2009, when 8,197 concealed-weapons permits were sought in Cobb, Wolk said.
Permits cost $72.25 and take four to six weeks for processing of fingerprinting and background checks. The permits, which are good for five years, now feature the individual’s photo, she said.
Jay Wallace, owner of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, said sales of all kinds of firearms at his store have been very busy.
“It’s in direct result of Christmas, an anti-gun administration in the presidency and the (Connecticut) shooting, all at one time,” Wallace said.
Follow us on Twitter!
arming teachers with guns is a bad idea cause too many guns in schools. but if you arm admins and principals and school cops its not.
and would people stop reciting the 2nd amendment over and over we get it already. it means same thing the first time you say it and the 5 billionth time you say it.
what people should focus on is not banning guns but findings way to better protect them from crazy people getting to it.
The 2nd Amemdment to our Constitution GUARANTEES TO ALL CITIZENS THE RIGHT TO BOTH KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. This was a right that our founding fathers deliberately wrote into our Constitution, with the full knowledge that the issue usually isn't the private citizen with the gun, or even necessarily the criminal with the gun, but our own government! If your truly willing to see the facts, and if you look down throughout history, the very first thing a corrupt government or tyrant does just before they assume absolute power, is to disarm their citizens! No weapons, no resistance! It's as simple as that! The true 'Bottom Line' is, you cannot suppress an ARMED population of citizens!
Whenever the gun haters give percentages of those of us who own guns, and then show disgust at the number of people who have them, they forget one thing...those numbers are for those of us citizens who purchase our weapons LEGALLY, and have a legal right to own them! Truth be told, neither we, nor our government, nor ANY of the agencies of law enforcement, have ANY IDEA WHAT SO EVER of how many guns are in the hands of criminals! Criminals buy their guns on the street from other criminals...they do not register their guns, and therefore, we have no way of knowing the number of weapons that are not legally owned. That's the truth, whether you like it or not, or whether you believe it or not.
So, what scares me? The idea that our government keeps picking away at our rights - and I'm now talkiing about ALL of our rights, not just our right to keep arms. It's very easy for our senators, congressmen and women, and especially the President, to say, "let's just ban all guns." Most of them are going to spend the rest of their lives being followed around by ARMED Secret Service personell for their and their families protection, regardless if their in office or not! If the government wants to assign me and my family a couple of Secret Service agents to watch over us for the rest of our lives, 24/7 - 365, then I will happily turn over my guns to them and will honor their restrictions. If not, then oh well! I guess I'll just have to keep my personal weapons to make sure that my own government doesn't decide that I'd be better off being totally defenseless!
I served in the Army, and did two tours in Vietnam...my government ISSUED me an M16 with a 'high capacity' magazine to protect my country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Now, you tell me you're going to seriously restrict me from having a personal weapon?! Now, after all my military training (which would leave the average cop or S.W.A.T. Team Member in tears), and after busting my ass to qualify for one of the toughest units known in the branches of the U.S. Army, you tell me you CAN'T trust me with a gun?! Well, to that I only have two words: SCREW YOU! I will not allow either myself nor my family to be helpless or unarmed...and I don't care where I live or how fast local police response time is...alot can happen in the five or so minutes it will take them to arrive.
And just one last thought: If someone you know or use to know wants you dead, they certainly don't need a gun to commit the crime...they could knife you...beat you to death with a baseball bat...hit you with their car or just run your butt over...or just shoot you with a bow-and-arrow or a crossbow - if they want you dead bad enough, and are willing to trade their freedon for your life, they don't need a gun to do the deed! And here's another important note: a hunting bow or crossbow can be just as effective as a gun or rifle within it's range limit, and you don't need a Concealed Carry Permit for it, or even necessarily a state issued ID or drivers license to purchase it. You can have it in your hands in five minutes, and be firing crossbow bolts from it at people in the parking lot five minutes later! So, where do the restrictions stop?
As long as there are evil or disturbed people amongst us, there will ALWAYS be a way for them to kill other people. So, instad of blogging 'till your fingers bleed to support restrictions to our personal safety, why don't you do some serious investigation into just how many times each year a law-abiding citizen who owns a gun has STOPPED a serious crime from being commited. Or, to simply quote an old saying that hasn't been heard around this country for a while, "What if every Nazi in Germany who went to the home of a Jewish family to take them into custody for a trip to the loal Death Camp had been met by a Jew with a gun?" If just one of the teachers at Newtown or Columbine had had a gun with them, could the outcome have been different? And I know that some of you will say that perhaps more people would have been killed, but I would say to you that if you're that bad a shot, then you probably shouldn't own a gun!
The longer Obama and his Marxists are in office, the more of an arsenal I would like. Because he gives our enemies guns but wants to take ours. And the media is with him! My grandfather would turn over in his grave. Our founders are spinning in theirs.
In the early days of our countries history, it was the Militias who guarded our borders and freedoms, such as they were back then. And who were the Militias? They were the private citizens who owned guns! They were charged by their communities with their defense, and each individual was responsible for his own protection and security, as well as for the protection of his or her families.
Even during the 1800's, or during the time that we have come to know as the "Wild West", things weren't truly all that 'Wild'. If you check the statistics from those early years, and compare them, per capita, to the current crime rates where guns are involved, and you'll see something very surprising - the crime rate against individuals or persons or their families was very, very low. Why? Because EVERYBODY had a gun! Criminals knew back then that 'Justice' was most likely going to be in the hands of his 'victim'. He, the criminal, KNEW, without a doubt that his intended victim was most likely armed - and not just armed - but also prepared to use his gun to defend himself!
Where I live in Kennesaw, Georgia, the city not only supports gun ownership by private citizens, it's a LAW! Every home within the city is required, BY LAW, to own a shotgun or other firearm. The result? There is very little crime in our city, and that crime that does happen is not directed at people...because they might be armed! There has been no home-invasion type crimes in our community that I can recall, but there are plenty that take place in other cities and surrounding communities where there is no such law in place.
If you don't like guns, then don't own one...but DO NOT tell me that I can't have one just because you think that they're dangerous or evil. A gun is a tool, and as with all other tools, it can be deadly and dangerous if in the wrong hands, or in untrained hands.
Here's an indisputable truth: No firearm of any type, large or small, anywhere on this planet, has ever jumped up, on it's own and of it's own volition, and shot a human being. It's never, NEVER happened! And further, it never will.
Get real here people and fellow citizens - GUNS, BY THEMSELVES, DO NOT KILL PEOPLE! PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE...and if they want you dead bad enough, they do not need a gun to do the deed!
Well, if everyone owned a gun, some teacher could have been the hero you fanatsize of being and shot the shooter and saved some lives.
Let us not forget how that worked out for the perp's mother. This whole tragedy started with your silly "if everyone had guns" premise falling flat on its arse.
So how about a new one, NRA copy paster humabot?
OK, go back to your latte and communist manifesto study, and enlighten us with some more brilliant thought.
Tour statement 'This whole tragedy started with your silly "if everyone had guns" premise falling flat on its arse.' is about the ultimate in ignorant and inane comments.
Yessir, you have surpassed your previous displays of insanity with this one.
I suggest you check into the nearest "rubber room" for some treatment and some R and R.