By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The number of active Washington concealed pistol licenses (CPLs) is declining for the second time in two years, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now Evergreen State gun owners have offered several possible reasons why.
Following a year-long decline in the number of active concealed pistol licenses in Washington State—between April 1, 2020 when the number peaked at 650,403 and May 3, 2021, when the decline bottomed out at 619,398—the curve began shooting upward again at a healthy pace.
By November 2021, the number of active CPLs had spiked to 643,317. But then the numbers began declining again in December.
On Tuesday, the number of active CPLs had receded back to 636,920, a drop of nearly 6,400 active licenses.
Using social media, TGM reached out to Washington gun owners, asking those who hadn’t renewed their CPLs for a reason. Replies were startling, and they may say more about the state of politics in Washington than anything else. From dozens of responses, one significant reason emerged: Many gun owners have moved out of the state.
One man moved to Arizona to enjoy “constitutional carry,” where no permit is necessary. Others moved to Texas, Montana, Kentucky and other gun-friendlier states. Where Washington was once considered among the better states for firearms owners—the Evergreen State was a pioneer of “shall issue” concealed carry and state preemption laws, and traditionally was in the Top Ten among states with active carry licenses—it is now considered a hotbed of anti-gun extremism, pushed by a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group based in Seattle that has literally bought two elections in 2014 and 2018 in which voters okayed extremist gun control measures. Opponents of both measures were simply out-spent, and could not get their messages out. Some gun owners have privately said they didn’t vote for various reasons.
As TGM has previously reported, neither of those gun laws has reduced, as initially promised, so-called “gun violence.” Data from the annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports and Seattle and other law enforcement agencies shows a pattern of rising violent crime. In 2015, according to FBI data, Washington reported 209 homicides. The number dipped in 2016, but started rising again the following year. In 2020, the most recent year for which FBI data is available, Washington recorded 297 murders, of which 143 involved firearms.
Likewise, a special “gun violence tax” hastily adopted by the Seattle City Council in 2015, ostensibly to raise money for intervention programs to reduce “gun violence” has never lived up to revenue predictions or crime reduction. Homicides in Seattle have climbed significantly since the tax collection began in 2016.
Others responding to the admittedly unscientific survey said they hadn’t renewed for a variety of reasons,
including a couple of people intimating they carry without a CPL. Some had forgotten to renew, and a few said the process had been turned cumbersome by individual agencies and they didn’t have time to deal with it. One man said he didn’t renew because it is no longer possible in Washington for a CPL holder to take same-day delivery of a handgun, due to what apparently is a quirk in state law that does not conform to requirements of the FBI’s National Instant Check System. This probably could be fixed with a housekeeping amendment to existing law, but because Democrats hold the legislative majority, such an effort might not advance.
However, other respondents said they had no problems renewing and seemed satisfied with the process. Presently, roughly one of every nine adults in the state is licensed to carry.
