Bucks County gun permits soar in wake of high-profile murders, shootings in US

After two weeks of bloodshed and death in Minnesota, Charlotte, North Carolina and Utah, concealed carry permits in Bucks County have risen more than 200 percent, county Sheriff Fred Harran said.

“They’ve really jumped up,” he said. “I compared last Thursday (Sept. 4) to this Thursday (Sept. 11) and there was a huge increase. Last Thursday we had 29 gun permits issued, this Thursday was 92.”

Three high-profile incidents of sudden violence and murder have captured the headlines since Aug. 29.

The shooting of 21 people at a Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota that killed two school children attending Mass; the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian war refugee, on a light rail train in Charlotte, and the public murder of conservative Christian influencer Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday have likely rattled Bucks County residents and spurred some to seek gun permits.

Bucks County issued 8,205 gun permits in 2024, Harran said. As of Sept. 15, 2025, the sheriff has issued 6,613 permits. Surges firearms permits in the county usually follow “high-profile events,” he said.

Harran said these kinds of attacks can be prevented.

“What do most of these shooters have in common, let’s say 80 percent of them? Long criminal histories or mental health issues,” he said. “Both those aspects of government (public safety) have failed us. Failed miserably. Right here in Bucks County we have a pretty good mental health care system, but it’s still failing. It needs a complete overhaul.”

With government unable to help, ordinary citizens decide to protect themselves with a gun. If government reps stepped up, it would reduce the threat, he said.

“You need to get help to the people who have drug and mental illness issues,” Sheriff Harran said. “I’m the one that started the Bucks County police assisting in recovery. You need to get people help that have drug addiction issues. I started the co-responders program when I was (police chief) in Bensalem. Police can’t do all this stuff. They need specially trained people on the street with them to help them.

“There is a price to public safety,” he said. “I remember working on the streets in patrol in Bensalem when (the) Byberry (mental health institution in Northeast Philadelphia) was closed down. And I remember the people just wandering about. Whatever happened to them? They didn’t get better all of a sudden.

“We also must face the fact that there are evil people among us, and some of them need to be locked up forever,” he said.

The sheriff wonders about his own safety.

“Because of this (undocumented) immigration issue I’ve become a headline, and now this lawsuit making national news with (enlisting county sheriff deputies to assist ICE in busting people in the country illegally), people have said to me, you know, you should be careful. And I think, well, I’m in Bucks County, in Doylestown, I think it’s safe to go through the parking lot to my car.”

He also carries a firearm.

“I’m armed, so at least I have a fighting chance,” he said.