It seems to me that the cumbersome application and approval process for CCW permits is the challenge in DE, not the number of applications.
The examples I gave of FL, PA and VA for comparison each process exponentially more applications than DE in a much shorter period of time.
For example, in the year ending June 30, 2010, Florida issued 136,624 new CCW Permits and 67,609 CCW renewals; total 204,233 Permits. Turn around time for a FL CCW permit is currently about 3 weeks.
The total number of issued FL CCW permits is greater than the entire adult population of Delaware. Does it take 6 months to get a DE drivers license?
Delaware is just not getting the job done with CCW permits.