Increasing numbers of Washington residents are obtaining concealed pistol licenses, resulting in a gradual rebound of the numbers, despite what appears to have been a steady departure of conservative residents for more friendly environs including Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas.
New data from the Department of Licensing shows June ended with 697,602 active CPLs, up slightly (222) from the figure posted June 1 of 697,380. But since January, more than 3,400 eligible adults in the state have obtained a concealed carry license, amid reports of rising crime and—especially in Seattle—shrinking police manpower.
As reported in March by KING News—the local NBC affiliate—the Seattle Police Department has lost “more than 700 officers in the past five years and is at its lowest staffing level since the 1990s.” The story further noted, “The department said it has seen staffing levels decrease every year since 2019. As of March 12, the force is down 375 officers.”
That sort of news cannot be good for people living in and around Seattle, and it has an inevitable “ripple effect” into communities up and down the I-5 corridor. In King County, for example, the number of active CPLs has climbed from 112,333 in January to 113,210. In neighboring Pierce County, the number of CPLs has climbed dramatically from 91,610m in January to 97,842 as of July 1.
Compared to last year at this time, the Evergreen State is up by more than 8,400 active licenses. On July 1, 2023 there were 689,153 CPLs in circulation.
Washington is one of many states with “shall issue” concealed carry laws. Washington’s was adopted back in the early 1980s when the state also adopted its model preemption firearms law, placing sole authority for gun regulation in the hands of the legislature. Seattle and other municipalities have wanted to change the law back to allow local regulation, but state lawmakers so far have been reluctant to do so. Preemption allows for uniformity of state gun laws from one border to the other, and since Washington has one of the best right-to-bear-arms state constitutional provisions, it would likely be unconstitutional to enact some of the restrictions local municipalities might desire.
Seattle and Edmonds most recently tested the preemption statute, and the courts did not allow it.
For the past couple of years, Washington has crept toward, but never reached, the 700,000 mark in active CPLs. But with police manpower down and the number of homicides statewide apparently creeping upward, that may change in the months ahead.
According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), the most recent crime data (for 2022) showed 394 murders that year, up 16.6 percent from the previous year.
Overall violent crime was up 8.9 percent.
