FIRST OFF . . .

Eddie Murphy got a little worried about Florida’s new permissive gun-toting law so he had metal detectors brought in for the Florida leg of his concert tour. Hand-held detectors were used to ensure that no one was packing a gun at his recent series of shows in Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Gainesville. “I don’t blame him,” said a spokesman for the West Palm Beach Auditorium. “If I had been Eddie Murphy, I would have wanted the same thing.” At the Miami show, knives and a few guns were found but they were on off-duty policemen. The law went into effect Oct. 1, replacing local gun-control ordinances with a looser statewide standard that relaxed the requirements for a concealed weapons license.