337,000 Washingtonians licensed to carry concealed handguns ...

[spin]

NEWS FLASH: More than 337K Washingtonians licensed to carry
May 31st, 2011 9:12 am PT

More than 337,000 Washington residents are licensed to carry concealed handguns today, according to data from the state Department of Licensing’s Business and Professional Division.

***snip***

Why are so many Washingtonians carrying firearms? According to Sgt. John Urquhart with the King County Sheriff’s Department, there does not seem to be any urgency about highly-publicized budget cuts, at least in his jurisdiction, so that probably isn’t it. (The good news in unincorporated King County is that with Kirkland’s annexation of three big neighborhoods at midnight tonight, the deputies assigned to those areas are being reassigned to patrol other parts of unincorporated King County. “That’s a good thing,” he noted.)

It may just be that increasing numbers of private citizens have realized that police and sheriffs deputies are rarely on the scene to actually interrupt a crime or prevent one altogether, and that – depending upon where in the state one lives – they may not be able to respond immediately, so help is not going to arrive in the proverbial nick of time.

***snip***

Washington has what many in the firearms community call one of the most sensible concealed carry statutes in the nation. It is a “shall issue” law that allows very little discretion on the part of local police officials in the issuance of a CPL. One does not jump through lots of hoops designed to discourage applicants.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/news-flash-more-than-335k-washingtonians-licensed-to-carry

Currently in Florida there are 813,127 valid concealed weapons permits. source: http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_monthly.html

[ileus]

1. There is safety in numbers....congrats to all who carry legally.

[lars1701d]

2. Why hasn't

the streets been washed with blood yet? /sarcasm


First post on DU been lurking for some time and I am a big 2a rights supporter.

[spin]

3. Welcome to DU. (n/t)

[GreenStormCloud]

4. That's a lot for a small state.

WA has a population of about 6,700K. About 2/3 of those would be adults. So we have 337K CCW out of a base of about 4,335K. That give about 8% (rounded) of the adult population as armed. WA has a murder rate of 2.7/100K and a violent crime rate of 331/100K which is fairly safe, unless you are a violent criminal. Then you have about a one in eight chance that you intended adult victim may be carrying a gun. That makes violent street crime a very high risk career.

[spin]

5. It is possible that "shall issue" concealed carry changes the nature of crime ...

Criminals often enjoy a big advantage of having a weapon when they prey on unarmed victims. The advantage goes away quickly when they faced an armed citizen and many people who carry concealed are very proficient with their firearms.

[spin]

6. delete...replied to wrong post. (n/t)

[Euromutt]

13. Washington state has been "shall issue" since 1961...

... and there's no training requirement to get a CPL (though the existence of several well regarded training facilities in the state indicates private citizens are getting training).

[spin]

7. Florida and Washington have currently well over one million citizens licensed to carry concealed ...

I'll bet there are well over ten million people in the United Sates who have carry permits.

[GreenStormCloud]

8. Texas adds another half million. N/T

[spin]

14. 250,000 in Ohio...

Nearly 250,000 Ohioans have been licensed to carry concealed weapons since 2004, when the state launched its procedure, Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement Tuesday.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/2010_ohio_concealed_carry_lice.html

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Every adult member of my family is licensed.

Though we do not always all carry.

[spin]

12. Same thing here. (n/t)

[jpak]

10. "It may just be..." What horseshit

yup

[spin]

11. Considering just how may people are legally carrying concealed firearms ...

I would hate to be in your position attempting to argue just how terrible this is for our society.

It would just suck.

Yup.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Carry on some college campuses is legal here too.

Though some administratively prohibit it.

It's not a problem here either.

[oneshooter]

16. It may be, but it is no worse than we hear from you. n/t

[ManiacJoe]

17. One advantage for the folks who do not carry regularly

is that the CPL allows you to skip the waiting period for handgun purchases; the NICS check takes only minutes.

[spin]

18. That is a big selling point ...

I know a local police officer who is authorized to carry off duty but has a concealed weapons permit to be able to buy a firearm and avoid the waiting period.

[ileus]

19. here in Va we get to dodge the monthly handgun limit with a chp.

[X_Digger]

21. In TX, we skip the NICS check altogether.

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/brady-law/permit-chart.html

[spin]

20. If there was actually a serious problem with concealed carry ...

we would see FAR more incidents of people with carry permits violating the law and using their weapons in a violent manner.

In four states, Florida, Texas, Washington and Ohio, we have 1,750,00 people who are licensed to carry.