U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Washington State has hit a new record in the number of active concealed pistol licenses (CPLs), soaring above 655,000 and adding more than 11,000 new CPLs during the month of June, according to data obtained by Ammoland News.
According to the state Department of Licensing, the 11,292 CPLs issued last month were second only to the 13,932 issued in April 2013 in a single month.
There is no small irony in the announcement. Right after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen on June 23, the Seattle Times published a report quoting anti-gun Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson admitting, “Today’s Supreme Court decision on firearms licensing has no immediate impact on Washington.
“That said,” he continued, “it ignores legal precedent, endangers public safety, and highlights a radical shift by the Supreme Court.”
Washington was one of the first “shall issue” states in the country, and it adopted state preemption in 1983 and strengthened it in 1985. It is not clear what legal precedent the high court ignored by striking down an unconstitutional licensing requirement.
Democrat third-term Gov. Jay Inslee, also a gun control proponent, sent out a tweet declaring, “The gun carnage on our streets have absolutely nothing to do with a ‘well regulated militia.’ We will vigorously defend every single measure Washingtonians have adopted to protect ourselves, our communities and our children.”
The Times story acknowledged Washington has “relatively stringent” gun control laws, which the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms described as being “extremist” and “failed miserably” in a news release.
“Violent crime in Pierce and King counties, combined with a reduction in police manpower has obviously resulted in a predictable public reaction,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “People will protect themselves and their families, and they’re taking that responsibility seriously. These sensible law-abiding citizens realize they are their own first responders.
“The surge in violent crime is undeniable proof of the total failure of gun control in Washington,” he continued. “Since the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby started financing extremist ballot measures in 2014, and anti-gun Seattle-area lawmakers began pushing their gun control agenda in the Legislature, Washington murders have gone up, not down. Voters fooled by slick campaign promises are evidently changing their minds.”
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports from 2015 to 2020, there were 209 total homicides in Washington in 2015 including 141 committed with guns, the first full year after voters approved Initiative 594 in November 2014, saying it would help prevent so-called “gun violence.” I-594 requires background checks on nearly all firearms transfers, with exceptions for immediate family members.
By 2020, the number of murders in Washington had climbed to 298, including 177 involving firearms. In 2018, voters passed Initiative 1639, which banned young adults aged 18-20 from buying so-called “semiautomatic assault rifles” and requires proof of gun safety training and a 10-day waiting period for those 21 years and older buying such rifles. The measure also defined “semi-auto assault rifles” to include every self-loading rifle, regardless of caliber, ever manufactured anywhere.
“Semiautomatic assault rifle” means any rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge,” according to language adopted in Washington in 2018.
Also in 2015, the Seattle City Council pushed through a tax on firearms and ammunition sales ostensibly to bankroll a “gun violence reduction” program. Homicides in Seattle have climbed from 19 in 2016 to 43 last year after hitting 52 in 2020. According to the Twitter site for Seattle Homicide (not connected to the Seattle Police Department), Seattle has seen 30 homicides so far this year. At that pace, the Jet City could surpass the 2020 body count.
Long story short, “gun control” has been a disaster for the Evergreen State, causing Gottlieb to observe, “Gun control zealots have been wrong all along.”
Interestingly, two counties have accounted for more than half of all the CPLs issued over the months of May and June, according to the data from the licensing department. King and neighboring Pierce counties, encompassing Seattle and Tacoma, respectively, are both liberal Democrat strongholds with spiking violent crime. Perhaps it is no wonder that in May, King County reported 100,716 active CPLs. In June, that number climbed to 103,220. Pierce County had 78,728 active licenses in May, and last month added 3,605 more for a total of 82,333 CPLs. Over the past two months, Pierce has added 6,104 active licenses, while King has added 3,714 licenses.
King County boasts the highest number of licenses of any county in the state.
Overall, the 655,709 currently active licenses set a new record, eclipsing the 650,403 set on April 1, 2020.
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About Dave 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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