Why Washington May Become Tougher Nut to Crack for Anti-Gunners

Washington State has more than 616,000 active concealed pistol licenses, according to new data. (Dave Workman)

U.S.A.-(Ammoland.com)- Two weeks after the legislative death of a controversial, and highly-contested, gun control measure that would have established an extreme training requirement for Washington State concealed pistol licenses, the state Department of Licensing released updated figures on the number of active CPLs in the state, and it is up more than 3,600 over the number in February.

As of April 1, there were 616,529 active CPLs in the Evergreen State, a fact that may offer a hint about the opposition to a proposed requirement which was obviously designed to dramatically reduce that number. Since January, Washington has added more than 8,000 licenses to the rolls.

This is happening while in neighboring Oregon, the Democrat-dominated Legislature was holding a hearing on the 44-page behemoth Senate Bill 978. The bill was described as “the distillation of several dozen gun bills introduced earlier this year,” by the Salem Statesman-Journal. Opposition to the bill was so heavy that the crowd spilled over into at least two “overflow” rooms.

This bill seems to include everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. Jammed in the text are provisions covering so-called “safe storage,” banning “undetectable” and “untraceable” firearms and a couple of erosions of state preemption. One tenet would allow local regulation of firearms in public buildings and the other would let retailers set higher minimum age limits to buy firearms, the newspaper noted.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Gov. Kate Brown declared, “The omnibus bill before you makes several common sense changes to Oregon’s laws to continue this very important work.”

Most of the people attending the hearing didn’t think the proposed changes make any sense at all.

North of the Columbia River, Washington had its share of gun control efforts this year as well, with some onerous ones such as the concealed carry training measure, biting the dust. But that only means they could resurface next year, either as legislation or as a billionaire-funded citizen initiative.

The recent history of concealed carry in Washington provides something of a mystery. The state is considered politically blue because the liberal Seattle/I-5 corridor demographic has been steadily moving farther to the political left. All one needs to be supported by Seattle voters is to have a “D” beside his or her name.

But get away from the Puget Sound basin and the Evergreen State turns various shades of red, with sheriffs in rural counties vowing to not enforce provisions of a controversial gun control initiative passed by voters last November.

Into this mix comes the state’s concealed carry movement and it is impressive. Since January 2, 2013, the state’s active concealed carry figure has spiked roughly 30-35 percent, when there were 392,784 active licenses according to DOL data. In the short course of six years, the state’s political complexion drifted left dramatically but added 223,745 CPLs, which is more licenses than some states have on the books. Last fall, Democrats gained greater control in Olympia and earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee, a far-left climate change activist, declared for the presidency, although he currently trails in last place, according to some polls.

Washington has had a concealed carry law since 1935, and it was a pioneer state in terms of “shall issue” laws. There has never been a training requirement to obtain a license in Washington, where the applicant must have a clean criminal record. There’s a background check, fingerprints are required and the waiting period can run from 30 to 60 days, depending upon the length of one’s residency.

All those legally-armed citizens make the state’s anti-gunners nervous. The Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility—the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group that has been behind three gun control initiatives since 2014—supported the training requirement. Perhaps lawmakers looked at the possibility of angering more than a half-million voters and decided to let the training bill die.

Roughly one in ten adults in the state of Washington have a CPL.

Washington has traditionally been in the Top 10 states where concealed carry is concerned, but that has changed slightly in recent years as more Americans are getting licenses and permits to carry.

They have the advantage of one of the strongest and most straightforward right-to-carry state constitutional provisions in the country. Article 1, Section 24 of the State Constitution says this: “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”

Oregon’s RKBA provision is Article 1, Section 27 of the State Constitution, which reads, “The people shall have the right to bear arms for the defence of themselves, and the State, but the Military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil power.”


About Dave WorkmanDave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

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Jkh1351

But one thing you have to take into account is that in Washington State we are too lazy and stupid to vote and send in our ballots WITH POSTAGE FREE ENVELOPES furnished. That is how 1639 got passed. If we cannot stand up for our rights with numbers we can bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Even Spokane and Whitman counties voted for 1639 with the Snowflake West Siders sending their kids to college in Eastern Washington. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Jerry Forster

Lets not forget that the 4th amendment is being violated for gun confiscations by Red Flag laws, and the 8th amendment is being violated for excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishment inflicted for theft of gun owner victims, and the 9th and 10th amendments for Socialistic/Communistic laws imposed on us citizens, and of course our second amendment rights and they are being violated everyday, just to name a few.

Witold Pilecki

I hate to tell you, but Kommiecticut’s state constitution is even more in favor of the armed citizen. It reads:
Article 1 SEC. 15. Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.

Yet, this did not prevent the commie pigs in the state legislature and governor’s office from enacting the most draconian gun control measures in the country. That is why CT & NY are the home of Armed Civil Disobedience, and almost no one has followed the new laws passed in 2013.

Theresa Fochtman

I am a wife, a mother, a daughter and an aunt. I stick by the 2nd amendment. I carry everywhere I go. I live in Spokane Washington. With all of the dead beats, crack heads, rapists and thief’s. You better believe I protect my family. If you want to try and take my gun away you’ve got another thing coming. That’s on you.

Wild Bill

@TF, If, God forbid, you should ever need to protect your family from dead beats, crack heads, rapists, thieves or illegal aliens, the “authorities” will prosecute you. You better get a throw-away-piece.

Graystone

@Wild Bill. Most of your posts and responses seem to be based on good logic and sound thinking. So, it is surprising that you would recommend T.F. to “get a throw-away-piece.” Come on. Don’t let us down with this kind of a comment/advise!

T.F. for heaven’s sake Do Not get, or even consider a “throw-away-piece!”

Seth Rich

I was born and raised in beautiful Puget Sound and I’ve watched the quality of living go from one of the best in the nation to one filled with degeneracy, crime and drug use, all at the hands of liberal politicians.
GUN GRABBERS WILL BE SHOT

Brenda

I agree,same here, I was raised here since I was 11 years of age in the Puget Sound, and the place has changed so much from Good to bad and getting worse. So sad,the Sound Used to be a really nice place to live…I remember a day when you didn’t have to lock your doors at night,now you better have dead bolts on them as well…. Ya I will not give up my guns either no way

jason miller

West side will NOT rule over my east side! Ever!!
Retired Army, I do not need a class nor a babysitter from the Califinicated libtard west garbage dump! I will never follow any such a law that disarms the good but allows the crud to rise!

Mr. Bill

BTW the attendance of opposition to OR SB 978-1 required the three largest rooms plus two additional overflow areas in the capital lobby. There weren’t enough chairs in the entire capital building for everyone.

tomcat

@ Jack Mac I agree with you but I’ve heard they bring in the foreign labor because they will work cheaper than the locals will and once they get here they forget to go back. The government issues more visas than they can manage so the strange looking employees of Google have a new home and do not have to go through the process. These companies are law breakers in their own right.

Gdubb

Citizens of the once free socialist states of the West should be pushing back and supporting new Bills to require all state elections be decided by statewide electoral college voting, by county. This would solve so many problems. Instead, we have anti-American socialist dictators like Inslee, Newsom and Brown pushing for the removal of the electoral college nationally, ensuring a new socialist America.

Jkh1351

Face it the Sonsabitches from Seattle run this state with Insleep and Side Show Bob. I really support splitting the state!

Clark Kent

Never going to happen. Any other dreams?

Wild Bill

@Jkh1351, The size and shape of a state is up to Congress in the enabling act that created any given state. Pressure Congress.

Don Harris

Anyone besides me notice the hammer is pulled back on that 45 he has in his holster?
What a intelligence way to show how to carry!!

Larry

Cocked and locked is the proper way to carry a 1911!

Spartacus

There is nothing wrong with carrying a 1911 in this manner. Knowledge is power

Jesse

I did. And, I agree. That’s a great way to show someone how to carry 1911 style pistol. Cocked and Locked is the best and safest way to carry it.

Morgan911

That’s how you carry a 1911.

Vanns40

Don Harris: Own many gun’s?

Mark

Wow you obviously know zero about the 1911 platform. Moron.

Pablo S

Please educate yourself before criticizing others, Don.

Get Out

As it’s already been pointed out, it is proper to carry a 1911 cocked and locked. On the other side of the weapon is a thumb safety that blocks the trigger and keeps the hammer from falling onto the firing pin thus igniting a live round.
comment image&exph=516&expw=702&q=1911+thumb+safety+picture&selectedindex=28&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6

Pablo S

@Dubi Harris, please educate yourself before criticizing others.

Zzzz

Carrying hammer down is the most dangerous way to carry a 1911 or 45 as you put it, especially if there’s a round in the chamber.

Don, not sure where you stand on this? Are you for or against it? You really didn’t say and frankly your English isn’t much better.

James

*What AN INTELLIGENT way to show how to carry.
If you are going to criticize someone, be sure that you are not an illiterate Jackass. Smh. You clearly don’t own a 1911 and most likely don’t own many guns. That is the proper way to carry a 1911. And the proper way to carry any pistol is chambered and ready to go. That is called condition one, and is the way law enforcement and armed security are required to carry their firearms. Any unloaded or unchambered firearm is just a paperweight.

TSgt Bruce Beatty

Don Harris: Condition 1 (aka- COCKED AND LOCKED) otherwise described as round in the chamber, hammer cocked, and safety engaged is how JOHN MOSES BROWNING designed the 1911 to be carried. Get knowledge or get goin’.

John

You need to school yourself , cocked and locked is the way to carry the .45 Acp pistol.

Jack Mac

Anti-felon laws as standing does no good either. How many prohibited people can we safely have freely roaming?

Tionico

Reminds me of the truth that David COdrea so often mentions.. If a man can’t be trusted in public with a gun, how can he be trusted in public without a custodian? Of course, these days there are FAR TOO MANY “crimes” listed as felonies that are not, and should not be, particularly as they debar the individual’s use of arms. I think it was Phoenix recently contemplaing a statute that would elevate theft in the amount of $300 or equivalent in value of goods to a felony theft…. thus rendering the thief a prohibited person. Not that I’m in… Read more »

Gas Block in WA

Amazon is moving most of its HQ away from Seattle to Bellvue– to corrupt another reddish purple city.
One more year and we’re out of this liberal Hellhole.

Tionico

Bellevue remains in King COunty, so politically there is no change. They are mainly moving to escape Seattle’s nutjob confiscatory tax structure. But soon enough the folks that own Bellevue will be sniffing the same drainpipes in which Seattle’s “leaders” have their own Pinocchios stuffed. And it does not change the total number of liberal socialist and/or comatose voters registered in King County and thus able to outvote everyone else in the state. And Snohomish COunty, next north, are rapidly swirling down the same four inch black vertical pipe as are the denizens of King County, widening and deepening the… Read more »

Clark Kent

Now THAT will show them! NOT!

Timothy Votaw

Well, for the record, “Democratic Governor Kate Brown” is full of bad-smelling, Left-wing bullshit. Half of Oregon thinks so. That half had better not give in, give up, or comply with her paranoid, repressive agenda. We should fight, any way that works. I will.

David Graham

I will not comply with any laws against my rights as an Oregonian, or as a citizen of this country. I would say most of Oregon agrees. We have to fight and keep fighting. These liberal politicians need to be removed from office for violating our Constitution. Plain and simple. MOLON LABE.

Wild Bill

@David Graham, Ok. I can respect that, but if you are going to adopt that stance, I recommend that you also adopt extreme operational security measures. Remember David Coresh and his group that adopted you non-compliance policy? The feds did come and take it.

Clark Kent

The Feds don’t have enough personnel (much less jail space) to stick it to thousands and thousands of non-compliers if they all stick together. Wake up.

Tionico

David Kuresh and his followers were NOT targetted because they had adopted any “non-complaince” policy, at least regarding firearms. Yes, they had some. Nothing illegal nor illegally acquired/held. What attracted the attention of Jannie was their radicsl “religious beliefs”…… she did not approve of their communal living, nor what appeared to her and her minions to be some questionable morality involving children. Nothing was ever verified, other than the number of people in various demographic categories all peacefully living together in what was dubbed a “compound”. NONE of that ever rose to any level of threat or danger justifying the… Read more »

Heathen Buckeye

Robert Kennedy was assassinated on On June 5, 1968.
David Koresh and 75 followers perished on April 19, 1993.

Your Math is wrong.

Doug

My family and I no longer live in Washington state (eastern Washington)we live in LIBERTY STATE. Inslee’s and his constituents are sniffing way too much if their own green grasses for this American their ideals completely differ from our heritage on this side of the state.

Adam

If constitutional carry were put into place like northern New England most people would no longer worry about it ! And the fact is just like in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont crime has actually dropped since constitutional carry in now legal ! Imagine that ! Criminals are thinking twice because someone else may have something to protect themselves!! Isn’t that a mind blowing discovery ?!

Hoplite

The article referenced the I 5 corridor. It is the San Andreas fault line or close thereto. The crack is growing slightly and allowing poisonous gases to emerge along the 5 that effects people minds. And of course the weed and other hallucinogens they take. Makes about as much sense as they make, right?? : )

Tionico

the San ANdreas Fault angles out to sea at Tomales Bay then hugs the coastline to Point Arenas. Then it heads further offshore.

And no, it does not offgas any hallicinogenic gasses.

And marijuana is NOT an hallucinogen. It cam make many folks lazy and unmotivated, but the real connexion is more likely that those predisposed to those conditioins tend to gravitate toward its use.

No, its more a moral failing… socialism, nannyism, greed,

lori Anderson

This is Why people on the east side of the state want to split the state of Washington in half. There is not enough representation for the east side of the state. Democrats do not speak for me.

Forward gunner

My family and I no longer live in Washington state (eastern Washington)we live in LIBERTYSTATE.ORG. Insleez and his constituents are sniffing way too much if their own green grasses for this American their ideals completely differ from our heritage on this side of the state.

Clark Kent

You are actually living in the state of delusion. Sticking your head in the sand assists no one; it just makes you appear as ignorant and selfish.

Mr. Walkker

Nor do they speak for the hundreds of thousands that reside in adjacent counties. The WA Legislator will be back at it again next year. And we will be back at it again next year too. The Fight never ends. The interesting issue is one of pent up demand of sorts. The harder the Gun Grabbers push for destroying the 2nd, the more the people purchase said firearms. But wait. What is it, that gets the so called Law Makers attention? This does. When writing letters to so called Law Makers, simply inform them that their “Actions are deemed Treasonous… Read more »

Clark Kent

Letters such as yours are immediately tossed into the ‘nutjob basket’ (read: the trash) by elected officials. You don’t start any conversation or letter with threats if you want to get anywhere with anybody.

Mr. Walkker

Clark Kent,Thanks for that feed back. However, Here is a bit of food for thought. Thinking and attitudes, and behavior in which you have stated are known facts. However past experience points to something a bit different., Since October of 2016, with many letters served to many Politicians, now indicates results are in fact other wise. You see we are at a very critical point here. There are serious white hats involved as counter intelligence operatives, which have indicated that known Gatekeepers are in place at every Admin level in all Political Offices, including those Municipalities which are in fact… Read more »

Phil in TX

Just like that grand old Englishman, Sir Winston Churchill once said “Never give up, never, never, never”.

Phil in TX

James Szatkowski

Well said

JA

While it is true that King County decides state-wide referendums and elections the state’s population changes year after year. The growth is UNFRIENDLY to the 2nd Amendment. Also as you point out BILLIONAIRES influence the vote. Nick Hanauer, a Seattle billionaire, billionaire and former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie, are major contributors to Hanauer’s group, Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Hanauer wrote in Politico about how his family fled Nazi Germany.Then there is Bloomberg yet ANOTHER Billionaire who has funded anti-2nd Amendment initiatives all over the USA. Bill Gates and his father funded previous attempts in WA… Read more »

Jack Mac

All the billionaires that you listed make money from thousands of workers. It behooves that these workers and the labor sources be easily and safely controlled. Their anti-gun contributions are recouped through the workers labor. When they can not find enough local unarmed works, then they simply bring in foreign docile workers, legal or not.

Clark Kent

How many migrant Mexicans do you suppose are working at Microsoft and other high tech industries? THINK before you post.

Mark Johll

Pretty sure we agree on these issues but why do you have to be such a dick?

Mr. Walkker

Clark, it is too funny…always like the perspective you provide. All is well. Not is lost to you.
Make a difference….Go to to a Home Depot corner and hire an illegal undocumented worker, to do, whatever you do. Father Willi be catching UP with you LATER. As in Latter Rain.

Oh,….. and BTW..did you know HE is WATCHING you?