Washington state has witnessed the sharpest decline in gun sales of any state in the union, and one group sounding the alarm may surprise both grassroots gun rights activists and the Seattle-based gun prohibition lobby—and local news outlets—because it is a conservative women’s group.
Conservative Ladies of Washington is reporting a “staggering 45.7 percent decline in firearm sales from 2023 to 2024.
According to the group’s website, the cause of downturn is the Democrat-controlled state Legislature, which has over the past two years, adopted “a string of sweeping gun control laws.”
“The impact is clear: fewer Washingtonians are purchasing firearms, and the chilling effect is no coincidence,” the group asserts. “HB 1240 severely restricted what types of firearms law-abiding citizens can own. And that’s not all: 2023 also ushered in mandatory firearms safety training requirements and tighter regulations on licensed gun dealers.”
GUN BUYING NATIONALLY DROPS BELOW 1 MILLION IN JULY
A few lines later, the group’s message states, “These policies are making it increasingly difficult for everyday citizens, especially women, to exercise their Second Amendment right to self-defense. For victims of domestic violence, stalking, or threats, access to a firearm can be the difference between life and death. When lawmakers restrict access to the most effective tools of self-protection, they leave vulnerable individuals more exposed, not safer.”
However, as reported this week by the state Department of Licensing, Washington has set another record for concealed pistol licenses at 713,194 active CPLs. The biggest number is in King County, which encompasses deep blue Seattle, where 114,508 citizens are licensed to carry. Neighboring Pierce County to the immediate south reports 99,275 active CPLs, followed by Snohomish County, immediately north of King County, which has 73,986 active CPLs.
Roughly 25 percent of all CPLs in these counties are held by women, according to the data, and there appears to be no slowdown on the horizon. The pattern appears to hold across the entire Evergreen State.
The organization was founded in November 2019 by Julie Barrett, a native Seattleite who was a single mom for 10 years and “formerly owned a boutique gym and spent many years as a bodybuilder.” She does not appear to be a fan of gun control.
“Supporters of these policies will point to declining gun sales as a ‘win,’ but for law-abiding gun owners, this is a huge red flag,” the group states on its website. “When government regulation makes it harder and more expensive for responsible citizens to access firearms, the result is not safety, it’s vulnerability and it is intentional. These laws do not prohibit from criminals doing what criminals do. These laws chip away at our constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, turning that right into a privilege that only some can access. The Second Amendment wasn’t written with exceptions or fine print and it certainly wasn’t written to be regulated out of existence by state legislators with a political agenda.”
Liberty Park Press reached out to the group for comment, but there was no immediate response.
“At Conservative Ladies of Washington,” the group says, “we believe in empowering citizens with facts…and the fact is this: Washington’s lawmakers are using legislative maneuvers to disarm the public. And the people paying the price aren’t criminals, they’re moms, grandmothers, college students, and survivors trying to defend themselves in a dangerous world.”
