The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office is now issuing conceal carry gun permits, under a change in the law that moved responsibility from the state Department of Revenue to the local sheriffs.

The permits cost $100 and are good for five years, after which you can renew for $50. Office hours for the Civil Process Division are Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Captain Ted Markt says his division on Monday issued about a dozen new and renewal permits.

Markt says typically they will get five to ten new applications per week for new  permits, but that goes up when the gun-control debate heats up.

“We were seeing 25 to 30 per week when there was a fairly hotly contested debate about gun control,” Markt said.

“We have always done the criminal background, and they have always applied to us. What the Legislature did is they took the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Revenue completely out of that loop. We now do all the things that we used to do, but we now issue the permit, rather than send somebody to the Department of Revenue.”