In 2014, Adam Putnam Said "Ultimately, I'm Responsible" if the Concealed Weapons Licenses Permitting Process Breaks Down

What a difference four years makes.

In 2014, Adam Putnam gave an interview to the Sun-Sentinel editorial board in which he said that “ultimately, I’m responsible if that [concealed weapons] system breaks down” and promised to create an “internal audit quality control unit” to avoid any problems with the concealed carry system.

Since Friday, Putnam has struck a very different tune — absolving himself of any responsibility and trying to put all the blame on one “deceitful” employee. Putnam has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid any accountability for his Department’s failure to conduct full background checks before granting 291 concealed carry permits. He has refused to explain why he spent more than a year hiding the IG report uncovering the scandal from the public. He also may have deceived lawmakers about the breakdown of his Department’s concealed carry system.

Putnam’s failure to take responsibility has led State Senators Linda Stewart and Kevin Rayder to call for a special Senate investigation into Putnam’s Department of Agriculture. As Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino has noted, it’s possible that Putnam and his staff misled legislators by pushing a bill that would have essentially legitimated his Department’s failure to conduct full background checks and allowed “concealed weapons permits to be granted to applicants in cases when the state had failed to verify all the background information.”

Smells like a coverup.