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Madison - In less than six weeks, 56,000 people applied for a permit under Wisconsin's new concealed carry law and thousands more bought handguns, swamping the state agency handling the required background checks.

The applicants so far amount to about 1% of the state's population, and very few of them have been rejected for a permit. The number of state background checks for handgun purchases is also up more than 50% for the year - another sign of the large numbers of people taking advantage of the new concealed carry law.

The state Department of Justice has been able to process all the applications and background checks within the deadlines set in state law, but that task will grow more difficult in the coming days as the time frame for handling concealed carry permits tightens.

"People are working weekends. People are working long hours," DOJ spokeswoman Dana Brueck said. "They're doing everything they can to meet those deadlines."

On Nov. 1, Wisconsin became the 49th state in the country to allow the concealed carry of weapons, prompting a rush from people who have long wanted a permit. The law allows people 21 and older to qualify for weapons permits if they are trained and can pass a background check that shows they're not felons or otherwise barred from carrying guns.

As of Dec. 11, a total of 24,821 people had had permits approved by the state and only a small number - 296 people - have been denied, according to new DOJ statistics.

Among those denied, an even smaller number - "fewer than two dozen" - have been rejected because of serious reasons such as their criminal records or mental health history, Brueck said. Most of the other denials are for reasons such as the applicant's address didn't match other state records, leaving open the possibility the person could correct that information, reapply and receive a permit.

For applications filed before Dec. 1, the state has 45 days under the law to process applications and manage the initial surge of people seeking a permit. But going forward the state has only 21 days to process the applications, which will be "more of a challenge," Brueck said.

Patience required

Jeff Szymanski of Greendale experienced the wait himself.

Szymanski said that he mailed his application on Nov. 4, and that the state cashed his $50 check for the application fee on Nov. 17, but he didn't receive his concealed carry permit until this month, 33 days after he applied.

"They did come through. They just took longer than I thought," Szymanski said of DOJ.

Szymanski said he hadn't used his permit yet and didn't expect to use it very often. He said that for him it was more about the principle that law-abiding citizens should be able to be armed.

"It's nice to have it," Szymanski said of the permit.

Brueck said DOJ officials had expected 100,000 concealed-carry applications to be filed in Wisconsin in the first year.

Nik Clark, president of Wisconsin Carry Inc., said he was pleased about the results after just a month. His gun-rights group wants to see 2% to 4% of Wisconsin residents with permits, but said most states have about 1% to 2% of residents with permits.

"The fact that Wisconsin has 55,000 applications is indicative that we'll have a real robust number of people carrying here," Clark said.

Clark said his group opposed the permit requirement for concealed carry, arguing that citizens simply be allowed to carry weapons if they met the criteria in the law such as having no felony convictions. Democrats in the Legislature had argued that the permits were needed to preserve public safety and that they would not represent a great hurdle for permit applicants.

"I think the DOJ is doing the best that they can" to process the applications quickly, Clark said.

To handle the early rush of applications, the agency has 10 employees assigned to work on the concealed carry permits and has more 11 workers who will start in January. The agency also has been pulling workers from other areas to help out on the permits, Brueck said.

Calls to the state's Handgun Hotline have risen. The hotline does criminal background checks on buyers before gun dealers sell them a handgun. November was the busiest month on record for the hotline, with 10,656 calls. The hotline calls have risen 53% this year to date compared with the same period last year.

The Justice Department has had to use some of its Handgun Hotline workers to keep up with the concealed-carry permits, putting further pressure on that service, Brueck said. The Handgun Hotline background checks have to be handled within 48 hours, but so far the agency is also keeping up with those, she said.