Tag: gun license

Considering A Concealed Carry Class?

Not all concealed carry classes are alike.

Beware of those concealed carry classes conducted at local hotels!

Concealed carry classes conducted at hotels do NOT provide any live-firing of a pistol on a gun range.

They only allow the firing of one shot of a paint cartridge at a paper target.

You do not believe it? Just call them and ask.

In-Gauge of Polk County conducts real, live-fire, concealed carry handgun training that both qualifies you for applying for a Florida concealed carry license and trains you in the use of a handgun for self-defense.

Not all concealed carry classes are alike . . . GUARANTEED! Shop around before you give someone promising concealed carry training your money. There is definitely a difference!

In-Gauge of Polk County class graduates can get an appointment to have their concealed carry license application processed within 48-72 hours.

Call and ask those conducting concealed carry classes in a rented hotel room how long it will take you to get an appointment to apply for your Florida concealed carry license.

Currently, the earliest available date for concealed carry weapons license application processing, with the Polk County Tax Collector’s Office, is July 8, 2021. (amended June 12, 2021)

There is no need to wait for an JULY 8, 2021 appointment date to process your concealed carry license application. Yes, an JULY 8th appointment date! (amended June 2021)

Graduates of our classes can have their license applications processed within 48- 72 hours. You read that correctly, 48 – 72 hours. That includes fingerprinting, photograph and submission to the Tallahassee office of the Florida Dept. of Agriculture.

This process is available only to our concealed carry class and firearm training graduates.

For our complete class schedule and to register for a class, please go to: ‘Register for a Class‘

There is only one Polk County concealed carry class provider that provides official NRA firearms training and advanced concealed carry weapons classes.

When you conduct more concealed carry classes and graduate more students than nearly all other ‘concealed carry’ class providers combined, attempts are made to copy your process. Attempts are even made to copy class materials. But, our instructional quality and dynamic content development can never be duplicated. Not all ‘concealed carry’ classes are the same.

In-Gauge of Polk County’s only business is conducting firearms training. 

  • We do not sell guns. 
  • We do not sell ammunition. 
  • We do not sell firearm accessories. 

In-Gauge of Polk County is a local, non-profit organization that conducts training that prepares you to defend your life and the lives of your loved ones. 

Class registrations are done online. Look for us represented at:

  • Gander RV & Outdoors – Bartow
  • Rural King – Lake Wales
  • The Gun Room – Winter Haven
  • Brian’s Outdoor World – Lake Wales
  • West Coast Pawn & Gun – Davenport

No other firearms training (concealed carry class) provider is represented at more locations in Polk County.

We encourage you to call around and check with local gun shops or other concealed carry class providers. Check their class cost. Check their class content. Check their on-range, live-fire time.

  • [ _ ] Check their total class cost
  • [ _ ] Check their class content
  • [ _ ] Check their on-range, live-fire time. How many rounds do you fire?
  • [ _ ] Check their credentials
  • [ _ ] Check their hidden costs
  • Ask them if they can provide you with a nationally recognized firearms training certificate.
  • Ask if they offer a 100% money back satisfaction guarantee

After you get your answers, call us and compare ours. 863-206-1996 We are never afraid to talk to you.

In-Gauge of Polk County is proudly partnered with:

  • National Rifle Association
  • Central Florida Ridge Friends of NRA
  • Florida Sports Shooting Association
  • Civilian Marksmanship Program
  • Polk Senior Games

If you are looking for unequaled firearms training, for either personal development or to qualify for a Florida concealed carry weapons license, visit our website at: www.ingaugeofpolkcounty.com

You can always reach us at: 863-206-1996

Florida Legislature Targets The Closing of Concealed Carry License Application Offices

The Florida Dept. of Agriculture closed its concealed carry permit application portal at the start of the pandemic.

Republicans want to keep concealed carry permits open after Nikki Fried closed them

FDACS closed its concealed carry permit application portal at the start of the pandemic. (Editorial comment: In Florida, it is a license not a permit.)

March 17, 2021 

A bill to force the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to keep a concealed carry permit application available online is on its way through the committee process after passing its first House panel Wednesday.

That’s in response to when the department, under Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, took down its concealed carry permit application portal on March 23, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Florida. That portal remained closed for nearly three months while the Agriculture Department faced lawsuits from gun rights groups over the closures.

The move came after Gov. Ron DeSantis recommended state offices temporarily close to the public beginning March 19.

Local law enforcement agencies and tax collector offices throughout the state largely suspended fingerprint services. Halting those services left first-time concealed weapons permit applicants unable to obtain fingerprints from those providers, according to the Agriculture Department. That would have forced the department to issue refunds, which it legally cannot do.

The House Civil Justice and Property Rights Subcommittee voted 10-6, along party lines, to advance the bill.

Bill sponsor Rep. Blaise Ingoglia did not mention Fried, the lone Democrat elected to a statewide office in Florida, while outlining his bill (HB 1343). But he confirmed the effort was in direct response to the closures.

“The reasoning for [the department] closing down the portal was saying that you could not get fingerprints at the time, which was absolutely not true. You could have gotten it at any sheriff’s office,” Ingoglia said.

“By showing that you could do this same thing online as you could do by paper shows that they took it down arbitrarily,” he told the committee. “That’s what we’re trying to stop. We’re saying you have to keep going continually.”

The right to bear arms is a constitutional right, stressed Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican. Yet other portals remained open during the concealed carry permit stoppage.

Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb, a criminal defense lawyer from Davie, said he saw the justice system come to a halt at the beginning of the pandemic. Sheriff’s offices and local police departments were not allowing face-to-face contact, preventing fingerprinting, he insisted.

He said he didn’t believe the bill was unnecessary, noting he has a concealed carry permit himself. However, he considered the effort an overreach and “much ado about nothing.”

“This was a very trying time for everybody in society, and to speculate that they took it down for a nefarious reason to deny people their opportunity to have a concealed carry permit is really, I don’t think, our mission here,” Gottlieb said.

In a statement to Florida Politics, Fried called the bill “overreaching, unnecessary and as wasteful as the failed lawsuit filed by fringe activists.” She also highlighted the “record-high” 400,000 licenses issued or renewed last year despite the pandemic.

“State law doesn’t allow us to refund applicants who don’t complete the process, including their fingerprints,” Fried said. “Because fingerprinting was largely unavailable during the pandemic, including from local law enforcement and tax collector offices, we made the responsible decision to temporarily suspend the online portal to prevent frustration from applicants.”

Fried added that the department never stopped processing applications it did receive.

“If Rep. Ingoglia really wants to help improve concealed weapons licensing, he could start with legislation to help us refund applicant fees, instead of politically-motivated bills that are a non-solution in search of a non-existent problem.”

It’s not the first attack the Republican-controlled Legislature has launched against FDACS since Fried took control. Last year, the House voted to strip the department of the Office of Energy and to move it back to the Department of Environmental protection, where it rested until 2011. Fried called that effort, backed by DeSantis, a “partisan power grab.”

Ingoglia’s bill next heads to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee. Estero Republican Sen. Ray Rodrigues‘ identical version (SB 1882), filed late last month, awaits its first hearing. The legislation would take effect in July.

Florida Concealed Carry Weapons License Class