Across Indiana, gun permit applications are being submitted in record numbers, which the Indianapolis Star calls a telling measure of how Hoosiers are responding to the national discussion about gun violence and gun legislation. The Indiana State Police said that after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., and the increasing calls for tougher restrictions on guns the agency is seeing up to 4,000 permit requests each week. That is triple the numbers seen last year by the State Police, which approve the permits.

It appears to be happening all across Indiana. “Ever since the president started talking about gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting, I mean we’ve seen a tenfold increase in the people that have come in wanting to get gun permits,” said Greenwood police spokesman Matt Fillenwarth, whose department processed 196 permits from November to January, compared with 47 during the same time frame a year earlier. “I think it’s been slowing down a little bit, but any time they talk about any type of gun control, people freak out.” Officials say a majority of the people who are seeking gun permits don’t need them. In Indiana, it is not necessary to have a permit of any kind to own or use a rifle or shotgun, or to own or keep a handgun in one’s home. It is necessary to obtain a permit only if gun owners intend to carry a handgun on their person or in their vehicle.