The number of active concealed pistol licenses in Washington state is beginning to climb dramatically, adding almost 7,000 over the past two months, making room for speculation the spike may be at least partially due to the passage of House Bill 1163, which will add an onerous training requirement to apply for or renew the CPL beginning in May 2027.
This bill also includes the Draconian permit-to-purchase requirement for buying a firearm in the state, with the same training requirement and background check.
Before anyone asks why lawsuits have not already been filed, the answer is simple. This law does not take effect for nearly two years. No savvy organization will “jump the gun” (no pun intended).
Instead, they will use the next 23 months to examine all possible legal strategies. There is no good reason to file a lawsuit now because it would likely be thrown out, since the statute isn’t even in effect and nobody can prove their constitutional rights have been impaired (state) or infringed (federal). Translation: A lawsuit now would be a waste of time and money, and might even produce a bad precedent.
Couple all of this with two high-profile shootings recently in Seattle, including one in which a legally licensed private citizen fatally shot a teen gunman who had just wounded two other teens at close range last Wednesday evening, and it appears more people have decided to take greater responsibility for their own safety. That shooting was previously detailed by AmmoLand News.
No charges have so far been filed against the Samaritan citizen who killed the teen in what appears to have been a justifiable use of lethal force under Washington state’s use-of-force statutes.
According to the state Department of Licensing, May ended with 707,924 active CPLs, a jump of more than 2,000 from the tally at the end of April, which was 705,691. This figure eclipse the March 31 figure of 700,943, which followed three months of data showing the number of licenses hovering just under the 700,000 mark since Dec. 31.
There is no small irony in the fact that Seattle police shot at a convicted drug dealer in the city’s Belltown neighborhood last Friday night. According to KOMO News, the local ABC affiliate, this was the same man who was actually shot and wounded by officers ion 2020, in the same area. While the suspect, identified as Demarco Dejohn Black, 34, managed to be armed during Friday’s encounter despite being a convicted felon, Seattle’s far-left legislative delegation has been fighting to prevent law-abiding citizens from legally having firearms, and discouraging them from buying more.
According to the KOMO report, Black was booked into the King County Jail “on suspicion of assault, unlawful possession of a firearm, and drug charges.”
In a separate KOMO report, it says Black was sentenced in 2020 to seven years in prison, but in November 2024, he was released. It evidently did not take long for him to return literally to the scene of the original crime. He was also arrested on drug charges in March and April, and there is no explanation why he was not quickly sent back to prison.
The attitude of recently-hired Police Chief Shon Barnes may be telling in his comment during a press briefing on the daylight shooting.
“I am thankful no one was hurt in this incident and that the suspect was taken into custody, and we got one more firearm off the street,” he stated.
Perhaps not surprisingly, KOMO said the suspect was “still under supervision by the Washington Department of Corrections for a 2020 conviction of assault from a case where he pointed a gun at police officers in Belltown during an arrest.” Among respondents to the KOMO report, at least one man wondered how Black could be out already after being convicted of aiming a gun at a police officer.
And here’s a detail about that incident which seems to refute the notion that more restrictive gun control laws will keep guns out of the wrong hands: “Court records say Black told police he bought the gun from someone whom he sold drugs to earlier that day, and he was keeping the gun in the driver’s door of his car.” That was an illegal gun sale under existing state law.
With the CPL tally reaching nearly 708,000, it translates to roughly one in nine eligible Evergreen State adults being licensed to carry. Washington has had a concealed carry license since the mid-1930s. It is also an open carry state.
In King County, which encompasses Seattle, nearly 1,000 active CPLs have been added to the rolls since March. It may be a blue city and county politically, but the numbers show even liberals will protect themselves.
In neighboring Pierce County, the number of active licenses has gone up by nearly 2,000 over the past two months, the data shows. At the end of March, state DOL says there were 95,861 active CPLs in the county, but now the agency is reporting 97,503 licenses. Tacoma, the county seat, has experienced what is described as a string of homicides this year.
Seattle so far has posted 14 slayings this year, according to the popular website “Seattle Homicide,” which is not affiliated with the Seattle police.
Statewide, there appears to be a growing interest in licensed concealed carry. The numbers simply tell the tale.
Awkward: Legally-Armed Citizen Fatally Shoots Gunman in Anti-Gun Seattle
More than 17,000 Guns Reported Lost/Stolen from FFLs in 2024
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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