By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Washington—the Evergreen State—continues to surprise its far-left Democrat gun control proponents with the latest figures on licensed concealed carry.
For the fourth month in a row, the state Department of Licensing (DOL) is reporting more than 700,000 active concealed pistol licenses (CPLs). October closed with 701,178 active CPLs in circulation, all but a relative handful possessed by state residents, and with high crime rates on everyone’s mind, this picture may not change anytime soon.
The state lingered for the past couple of years in the high 690K bracket, but never quite topped the threshold until the end of July, when the DOL revealed 701,020 active CPLs. The numbers declined in August to 700,574 and by the end of September, the number had dropped again to 700,519.
But October’s closing figure is noticeably higher and it suggests that even in the “land of liberals,” people care about their personal protection.
However, the data suggests it is people living in less populous, and arguably more conservative, counties than the Democrat stronghold of King County, who are making the difference. Active CPL numbers in King, and neighboring Pierce (south) and Snohomish (north) show a mild decline from July through October. On July 31, King County reported 113,054 CPLs, but by the end of August, the total had declined slightly to 112,672. On Sept. 30, DOL reported 112,509 active licenses in King County, October’s month-end total was 112,446.
One area where there was a spike was in the “Unknown” category; licenses not immediately identified by county. By Oct. 31, that number was 15,175.
DOL breaks down the number of CPLs by county, and about 20 percent of all licenses are held by women. With the state population exceeding 7 million, it is roughly estimated that 9-10 percent of all eligible adults in the state is licensed to carry, so it is conceivable that every tenth adult one encounters in the state is licensed to carry, and may even be armed.
Outgoing Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee signed a 10-day waiting period into law, which grassroots gun rights activists say makes no sense. Waiting periods historically have not prevented a single mass shooting, or any other violent crime, and criminals don’t bother with them, anyway.
Earlier this year, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said the number reflects “a growing concern about Washington’s crime rates, and the fact that the state is dead last in the number of commissioned police and sheriffs’ deputies per 1,000 residents, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).”
