CCW permits are handled by Department of Agriculture in FL. I always just assumed that the legislature did this to keep it as far away from law enforcement as possible (see NJ where police chiefs have sole discretion to issue permits, so they simply don’t).
Partially right. Florida was a must-issue state with the sheriff’s office doing the issuing. This imposed a heavy burden on these county sheiff’s offices, that and the desire for state wide consistency lead to consolidation in the Florida DOA. While sheriff a Democrat she has been fair and consistent.