BELLEVUE, WA – With the Seattle City Council preparing to slash police services, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is recommending that residents prepare for the worst, and as part of that effort they should buy a gun if that’s their choice, and demand that both the Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office resume taking applications for concealed pistol licenses.
Both agencies stopped accepting new CPL applications more than three months ago, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, while processing renewals has continued. But this has left new gun owners unable to apply. Gun sales have spiked nationally due to the pandemic panic and civil unrest in downtown Seattle. City residents travel to gun shops in neighboring communities for their purchases to escape Seattle’s regressive gun and ammunition tax, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.
“While the city council may believe crippling its police department is a politically smart move,” Gottlieb observed, “it’s going to directly impact public safety. Nobody should be surprised when more people buy guns and apply for carry licenses, only in Seattle and King County, applying for a CPL hasn’t been possible since March.
“Seattleites saw what happens when there is limited police response by watching what occurred in the so-called ‘CHOP’ zone in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood,” he noted. “Two teens were murdered, four other people were injured in shootings, and no amount of fluff reporting and official denial could conceal the anarchy.
“This effort to defund the police creates legitimate concerns among Seattle residents and people who work in the city about their safety,” Gottlieb said. “Preventing people from applying for a concealed pistol license is tantamount to denying them their right to bear arms under the state and federal constitutions.
“We know other agencies also suspended the CPL application process,” he noted, “and it is time for Seattle and King County to demonstrate some leadership by opening this process back up.
“We fully support anyone’s decision to buy a gun for personal protection,” Gottlieb said. “We encourage new gun owners to take a safety course, study the rules of gun safety, and practice safe gun handling. We also recommend they demand resumption of the carry license application process immediately. Rights delayed are rights denied.”