TAMPA Fear has some people turning to guns for protection. ...more

April 1, 2009

The Tampa Bay area is on pace this year to exceed permit applications from previous years, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Some people are worried about the recession; others believe a new president will mean bans on weapons. ...more

March 30, 2009

Floridians have requested 187,162 concealed-weapon permit applications over the last six months - an 82 percent increase compared with a year earlier. ...more

February 19, 2009

Mark and Connie Thomas went to their first gun show Dec. 6 at the Florida State Fairgrounds, where throngs of people packed the parking lot and swamped the Charles M. Davis Special Events Center. ...more

December 17, 2008

With roughly 1,000 firearms stolen from gun dealers each year in West Central Florida, federal agents want shop owners to be more vigilant in the lead-up to the Super Bowl. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gave a seminar today for some of the region's 1,600 licensed firearms dealers. Among the topics: how burglars break into gun stores. ...more

December 15, 2008

The security game plan for Super Bowl XLIII involves screening the backgrounds of more than 30,000 vendors and volunteers and restricting flights around Raymond James Stadium, officials said today. ...more

December 10, 2008

Mark and Connie Thomas went to their first gun show Saturday at the Florida State Fairgrounds, where throngs of people packed the parking lot and swamped the Charles M. Davis Special Events Center. ...more

December 8, 2008

Many people are flooding to the gun show at the fairgrounds. ...more

December 7, 2008

The leader of a ring that smuggled hundreds of guns from Florida and sold them to street gangs in Puerto Rico pleaded guilty this morning to federal firearms crimes. ...more

September 10, 2008

Hundreds of AK-47-type weapons were smuggled from Florida into Puerto Rico more than four years by a ring of 15 people, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court. ...more

June 26, 2008